Reports: Former player urged the board not to sack Jose Mourinho

What's the story?

Former Manchester United defender, Phil Neville backed Jose Mourinho despite another poor home performance against Juventus and urged the Red Devils board not to sack the Portuguese manager.

In case you didn't know

Manchester United have had a tough start to the season and there are question marks on Jose Mourinho's future at the club. The Red Devils are currently tenth in the Premier League table, nine points behind the leaders Manchester City.

The 19 times Premier League champions lost three of their opening nine league fixtures and scored just 15 goals in the process. Their defence is equally miserable and is the culprit of conceding 16 goals.

The Portuguese manager criticized the Manchester United board for not providing him with sufficient funds to spend in the transfer market. Also, the big-name players like Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez are struggling to perform as well.

He got criticized for his behavior towards his players as well and was recently engaged with a bust-up with Manchester United's record signing Paul Pogba.

The heart of the matter

Former England international believes Mourinho can still guide the Red Devils into the top four of the Premier League

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Neville said, "United are tenth in the Premier League."

"And you are not tenth in the Premier League if you are then going to go on and win the Champions League. So I think there has to be some realism in terms of where United are at."

"It is disappointing, it is not something that I think the supporters will accept but sacking Jose Mourinho isn’t the answer."

"What will that achieve? Someone else will come in and they will have to work with this set of players."

"I actually think they have got to say: ‘Jose, we are going with you, we are sticking with you, you have to get us out of this, you have got to get us up to the top four, you have got to build confidence."

"At the moment I don’t think we are at that point where it is crisis, it is panic. These players I think over the last three games have improved their performance levels."

"Tonight they came up against a side that was far superior. Go back to the Premier League at the weekend and I still think United have got the quality to get into the top four, I firmly believe that"

"But sacking Jose is not the answer," added Phil.

What's next?

Jose Mourinho is one of the most successful managers in the history of football but his time is certainly up at the Old Trafford. He has been nearing a sack at United for a year now and this defeat could prove to be the final nail on the coffin.

Ryan Giggs and Zinedine Zidane are the favourites to replace him at the club, whereas, Jose Mourinho is linked with the move to his former club Real Madrid.

The Red Devils will play Everton and Bournemouth next in the league before making a trip to Turin to play Juventus for the reverse fixture. They are currently second in their Champions League group but face a tough competition from Valencia for the qualification to the knockout stages of the tournament.