Exactly three years and one day after Jose Mourinho was unceremoniously sacked during his second spell at Chelsea, he has been given the boot at Manchester United following the club's worst-ever start to a Premier League season.
It’s not all bad news for Mourinho, however, as he has been gifted a pretty generous severance package from the Red Devils. Indeed, he will receive a far larger pay-out than any of his previously dismissed predecessors due to the fact his sacking took place so early on in the season.
So how much will the Portuguese boss earn as severance pay, and how much did former sacked Man United bosses receive? Goal takes a look.
How much will Jose Mourinho receive from his Man United payout?
It's been a season of struggle and turmoil for Man United and the manager that they rewarded with an improved contract just 11 months ago.
Signs of trouble were brewing even before the start of the season, amid reports of Mourinho falling out with players and the board of directors for failing to grant him his transfer wishlist.
The fact that it was Mourinho's infamous 'third season' in charge of a club was both an ominous sign and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Manchester United suffered a horrible first-half to a season that saw them fall 19 points off the Premier League summit after 17 games, and a further 11 points adrift of Chelsea in a Champions League spot.
The demoralising 3-1 away loss to Liverpool on Sunday was the final nail in the coffin for Manchester United and they dismissed Mourinho just 48 hours later. However, his early-season dismissal will produce a big dent in their bank account due to several clauses and factors.
The Daily Record initially reported that United were to face a compensation package of roughly £18 million if they dismissed Mourinho before the end of the season.
That fee has the potential to rise exponentially, however, now that he has been axed before the end of January.
In doing so, United will now have to pay him a Champions League "top up" having sacked him while the club are still in the European competition, or still in contention to finish in the top four (no matter how unlikely the latter scenario is).
United will now pay the Portuguese manager a fee in the region of £22.5m, according to the Daily Mail, to cut short a contract that was poised to run until 2020.
Though Mourinho was on a basic salary of £18m – which is what Man United are liable to pay in order to dismiss him – the contract included a 25 per cent bonus if the club were still in the running for the two main competitions upon being sacked.
How much payout did David Moyes and Louis van Gaal receive?
Mourinho is now the third Man Utd boss to be sacked following the retirement of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, though the Portuguese’s predecessors didn't earn nearly as much in their respective severance packages.
Both David Moyes and Louis van Gaal weren't dismissed until a time of the season when it was no longer mathematically possible to achieve a top-four finish. Mourinho, on the other hand, has been given the boot before Christmas has even arrived.
The Scotsman received around £5m as a payout following his sacking in 2014, and van Gaal obtained a similar amount in 2016.
