Jose Mourinho became the elephant in the room for Louis van Gaal. Is Mauricio Pochettino about to become something similar where Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is concerned?

To this day, Van Gaal insists he did not see his sacking as Manchester United manager coming, confident private assurances from the club’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, meant more than the persistent chatter about Mourinho being lined up to replace him.

“What I don’t like is Woodward contacting my successor, knowing in his mind he will replace me and he keeps his mouth shut for six months,” the Dutchman told the BBC in an interview in March.

“Every Friday I had to go into press conferences and be asked what I thought about the rumours. What does that do to the authority of the coach?”

Solskjaer is under enough pressure without the manager whom his boss coveted among all others at the time of the Norwegian’s interim appointment at Old Trafford last December now being available.