Manchester United will have to pay £7.5m to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer if they sack him, according to reports.

The Norwegian is clinging onto his job as United manager following a poor start to the season. The Red Devils have gone four games without a win in the Premier League and have already been eliminated from the League Cup. The nadir to date was last weekend’s astonishing 5-0 demolition at the hands of arch-rivals Liverpool.

Solskjaer must have been fearing for his position after that historic defeat, but he remains at the helm for now. United want to give the 48-year-old the chance to turn the situation around, and the next three games could decide his fate. Solskjaer’s side take on Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday, before a midweek Champions League trip to Atalanta.

The make-or-break period will conclude with the visit of Manchester City to Old Trafford on November 6.

However, he could be sacked before the Manchester derby if his team suffers another bad defeat by Spurs this weekend. According to the The Sun, Solskjaer would be due a £7.5m pay-off if he is relieved of his duties.

That is the equivalent of a full year’s salary, which makes the former Molde manager the fifth best-paid boss in the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Brendan Rodgers and Marcelo Bielsa are the only coaches to earn more than Solskjaer.

United are unlikely to avoid pulling the trigger on their former striker for financial reasons. But they must now be questioning the wisdom of handing Solskjaer a new three-year contract in the summer.

Meanwhile, The Times writes that one player questioned the manager’s decision to hand Harry Maguire the captaincy in recent clear-the-air talks.

The England international was handed the armband in January 2020, just a few months after his arrival at Old Trafford. Maguire has struggled for form of late and was particularly poor in the 4-2 loss to his former club Leicester earlier this month.