Manchester United news: Mourinho to Old Trafford is a done deal, according to former Tottenham manager

Jose Mourinho will take over from Louis Van Gaal as Manchester United manager next season -- that is according to Harry Redknapp, the former Tottenham boss.

Mourinho has been constantly linked with a move to Manchester United, since the Portuguese was let go by Chelsea in December. With Manchester United suffering another unimpressive defeat, this time at the hands of Sunderland on Saturday, Van Gaal's days as the manager does look numbered.

Six points separate Manchester United and fourth-placed Manchester City at the moment with 12 games to go, and if the former fails to qualify for the Champions League next season, the club's executive vice chairman Ed Woodward is expected to end Van Gaal's association with the Old Trafford club one year early.

The obvious high-profile replacement is Mourinho, who reportedly wanted the job when Sir Alex Ferguson retired a few seasons ago. And as far as Redknapp is concerned, Mourinho will get his wish fulfilled finally.

"It hasn't worked out at all for Louis van Gaal at Manchester United," Redknapp told Sirius XM. "It's been a disaster for him. No doubt about that.

"From the people I know who are in the know, it seems Jose Mourinho to United is a done deal."

However, according to former Manchester United player Paul Parker, Mourinho is not the solution for the club.

"United went from bad to worse this weekend. They certainly don't look like a team about to surge back into form and make a run into the top four of the Premier League," Parker wrote in his column for Eurosport. "But bringing in Jose Mourinho? That is absolutely not the answer.

"So to suggest that he could walk into a crisis situation at United and turn it around is absurd. That's something he's never done in his career, and this really wouldn't be the time to start. He's lost a huge amount of respect in the game, and I suspect the players at United hate the idea of him taking over."

Parker believes bringing in someone like Tim Sherwood as a short-term replacement until the end of the season is the best solution for Manchester United at the moment, before they target someone really big at the end of the season.

"Frankly, given how unhappy the players are right now, they'd be better off bringing in Tim Sherwood between now and the end of the season -- someone to soft soap the players, give them a bit of a cuddle, get them feeling good about themselves once again," Parker added.

"Sadly, as we've seen with Tim, those sorts of managers don't work long-term. And United need to start thinking about the long term as soon as possible, because if not they face the ultimate danger -- turning into the new Liverpool."