Manchester United are holding off handing Jose Mourinho a new contract.

Doubts are growing over whether he can take the club back to the summit of English football.

United’s bosses have been left stunned by the way Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have turned the Premier League title race into a procession with Mourinho seemingly unable to respond.

And while the sight City romping clear at the top of the table is tough enough for United to take, influential boardroom members are also unhappy about the ultra-pragmatic tactical approach still being taken by the Portuguese.

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Questions are now being asked at a high level whether the former Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss should be handed an extension on the three-year contract he signed in the summer of 2016.

He has not stayed at any club he has managed for longer than three seasons.

United - who also have the option of triggering an extra 12 months on Mourinho’s current deal - were expected to hand the 54-year-old a fresh agreement that would also give him a significant rise on his £12million-a-year wages after a successful first year in Manchester.

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United returned to the Champions League by winning the Europa League and they also lifted the League Cup and Community Shield.

But the aim this time was to mount a sustained challenge for the Premier League for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 with United champions.

Despite sitting in second place, that hasn’t happened.

United have bankrolled Mourinho to the tune of £300million in the transfer market over the course of the last 18 months.

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And while there is an acceptance that City’s start to the season is so unprecedented that they are on course to shatter a clutch of Premier League records, the expectation was that United would be much closer to their rivals.

It is evident that Mourinho is feeling the pressure of trying to beat his old foe Guardiola.

Already this season, the Portuguese has been critical of individual players and even United’s fans.

He has also made a thinly-veiled threat to quit the club for Paris St Germain.

His complants that the City players were celebrating too loudly after their recent one-sided derby win at Old Trafford raised eyebrows, given United’s negative approach to the game itself.

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With Guardiola expected to commit himself to a new contract that will keep him in Manchester for another five years, the pressure will be on Mourinho in the coming months to prove he is up to competing against his old nemesis.

Mourinho has won the title in his second season at every club he has managed. But it is going to take a spectacular City collapse in the second half of the season – coupled with a storming United fightback – to maintain that record.

If the title race is over then Mourinho will have to show himself capable of closing the gap.