Manchester United’s management have made contact with Leicester City’s Brendan Rodgers about succeeding the Norwegian tactician Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and are ready to pay his exit clause, according to reports.

Ole was officially relieved of his duties last weekend, with senior team coach Michael Carrick placed in charge temporarily until a new boss is appointed.

United are said to be weighing up appointing a new permanent chief or an interim manager to hold the fort until the summer when the club expect several top-class head coaches to be more readily available.

The likes of Ajax’s Erik ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino are unlikely to take the job now. However, fortunately for United the same may not be true of the Foxes leader.

According to The Sun, he is willing to leave the King Power Stadium outfit mid-season should the Northern Irishman be offered the Old Trafford hotseat and direct contact has already been made.

Rodgers has a clause in his deal which allows the tactician to speak to certain UCL clubs and Leicester City would be powerless to stop him from departing.

The 20-time English champions would need to pay the £8 million exit clause to extract him from the deal with his club.