Revealed: The huge cost of sacking Jose Mourinho as Manchester Untied manager

Mourinho is the bookmakers' favourite to be the first Premier League manager out the door having lamented the club’s lack of activity in the transfer market this summer with ongoing claims of unease between the Portuguese and France World Cup winner Paul Pogba.

Mourinho’s frustration with chief executive Ed Woodward has also been apparent in various media conferences with no central defender arriving following the signing of Fred, Diogo Dalot and third-choice goalkeeper Lee Grant for a combined £73m.

"My CEO knows what I want and I still have a few days to wait and see what happens," Mourinho said on the club TV channel.

"The other clubs who compete with us are really strong and already have fantastic teams. Or they are investing massively like Liverpool, who are buying everything and everybody. If we don't make our team better it will be a difficult season for us."

Having extended his contract at the club until 2020 last year, Mourinho also ensured he would be guaranteed a lucrative pay-off if he and the club part company.

After the contractual dispute with previous manager Louis van Gaal, Mourinho has a clause in his contract that guarantees him a whopping lump sum of £12m as a final payment.

“It became quite a protracted affair when it came to discussing a final settlement with Louis van Gaal," said a United source in The Sun.

“The club wanted to avoid a repeat of that again in the future – especially as Jose earns far in excess of what he did.

“Van Gaal held out for every penny but even United have to draw the financial line somewhere with Jose.”

It cost Chelsea £8.3m in compensation to dismiss Mourinho and his backroom staff last year. It is claimed he has picked up £35m in compensation from previous jobs.

Mourinho hopes to be able to call upon some of the players who have just returned from the World Cup when his side host Leicester City in their Premier League opener on Friday.

Mourinho suggested Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard, Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku could also play a part against Leicester.