It was bound to happen. It was only a matter of when.

The first time I heard it was around 5.40pm on Sunday. For those of you who weren’t around to listen, it came from a disgruntled Manchester United supporter.

“They should never have got rid of Jose Mourinho.”

The voice of the fickle football fan had spoken again.

There have been tales of some marriages lasting about as long as the wedding ceremony and if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has that feeling this morning who can blame him?

Is it so long ago that players such as Paul Pogba led the chorus line in singing the praises of their new boss and how he put the smile back on their faces and gave them the freedom denied them by his predecessor?

The fans were pleading with the club’s board to give their interim manager the job full time. He had passed the audition.

They gave him a three-year contract and since then it has been downhill most of the way, ending in the 4-0 defeat at Everton.

Where were the anonymous cheerleaders like Pogba and Co when they were needed? Pogba, we are forever being reminded, is a World Cup winner, as though he did it without any help.

It was the fourth defeat in six games since Solksjaer’s full-time status was confirmed while the ever United loyal Gary Neville was furious in his assessment: “If you have got weeds in your garden you have to get rid of them, but there is Japanese knotweed at that club and it is attacking the foundations.”

A bit strong, maybe but the manager didn’t contradict him.

“I am going to be successful here and there are players here who won’t be part of that successful team,” he said. “If you want to pay for this club it has to mean more.”

Followers of United rarely draw breath when reminding us that they are the biggest, best, richest cub on the planet.

Right now they are none of those. Nor have they been in the six years and four managers since Sir Alex Ferguson left the job.

The Fergie brand is long gone and the fact is that the name of Manchester United does not mean as much to some highly-paid, agent-paraded players as it does to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Meanwhile, there is the matter of tomorrow’s derby to think about.

*The expanding world of rugby league gets ready to open its doors to New York City and Ottawa Stags but are things all that they seem in the bid to add to the North American presence alongside Toronto Wolfpack?

Leading light in the New York bid is Yorkshireman Ricky Wilby who, according to Companies House, is the dominant shareholder.

It has been revealed that he is backed by a Russian businessman reported to be the main source of finance, an American Sports executive, two Mixed Martial Arts fighters, a London man and the director of events at the Red Bull Arena, the new club’s home stadium.

New Zealander Tony Feasey is also a shareholder.

It all sounds such a great idea – in fact 19 of the 23 clubs outside Super League who were asked seemed to think so.

But is it a bit too early to pose the question: How many New Yorkers or New Jerseyans have shown any interest in the sport ahead of its arrival in the Garden State?

With, it appears, just one American voice on the board running the new outfit could it be just a case of hitting and hoping?

The other bid – Ottawa Stags (a relocation of Hemel Stags apparently) is the brainchild of Eric Perez, the man behind the launch of Toronto Wolfpack.

We have not heard much about them but that could be because, unlike New York, there is no Yorkshire or Oldham link.

Rugby League has been trying to stretch its boundaries for longer than any of us can remember. Maybe the time is now.

*Take your pick. Will it be Virgil van Dijk or Raheem Sterling? Sadio Mane or Sergio Aguero? Eden Hazard or Bernardo Silva?

That impressive six-pack is the short list for Sunday’s PFA Player of the Year Awards with Sterling the bookies’ slight favourite.

The trouble with that list – or any other list including the Oscars, BAFTAS, or Wisden Cricketer- is that it is often about who is not on it.

Do players and actors have their favourites? Or is their choice made on the strength of a couple of meetings during the year?

Five from the top two clubs in the Premier League plus Chelsea’s Eden Hazard suggest that the voters did not look too far afield to make their choices.

No place for Tottenham’s South Korean whizz kid Son Heung-min or somebody (anybody at all!) from Arsenal.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the football pay scale our friends up at Fort William bring the curtain down on their season on Saturday with a home game against Wick Academy.

Can they finish with a win? Their 31st defeat of the season at the weekend – 6-1 – meant they had conceded 220 Highland League goals and mid-table Wick will probably make it 32. But we live in hope.