FOOTBALL is a bit like comedy in that it moves forward at a frantic pace and those left behind age quickly and badly.

Over the past year, especially since the start of this current football season, Jose Mourinho has resembled a has-been stand-up, astonished to find himself in the shadow of fresh faces, wondering why his once winning routine of Irish and mother-in-law jokes these days plays out to half empty rooms.

Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino have not only moved with the fast-changing times, they are leading this cutting edge football coaching revolution. Mourinho is Bernard Manning, a relic from a bygone time whose act, once seen as edgy, now turns people off.

The Portuguese was indeed once special, the best manager in the world, a fantastic motivator, a funny and clever man, not always easy to love, but impossible not to admire.

But he is no longer any of those things. By the time he arrived at Old Trafford two-and-a-half years ago, the game had moved on and he hadn’t seemed to notice. The footballers themselves had changed and Mourinho either failed to adapt or even simply grasp that his methods didn’t work anymore.

There was enough evidence for this when a second spell at Chelsea ended. He was a manager in decline then, still a big name of course, but one with an outdated philosophy in an unforgiving environment.

At 55, Mourinho looks washed up. For some context, when Sir Alex Ferguson was that age his young and exciting Manchester United were on their way to a second successive league title in 1997, a season after they won the double.

He was two years away from his greatest achievement; the treble of League, FA Cup and that incredible European Cup win over Bayern Munich in 1999. The Scot was 71 when he signed off with another title, his 16th in total.

Mourinho’s last three jobs have been at Real Madrid, Chelsea for a second time and at Old Trafford, a replacement for Louis Van Gaal. He won trophies at all three clubs but not the ones he was paid handsomely to do.

Real didn’t win the European Cup with him. He won a title with Chelsea but the club didn’t move forward and while the Europa League and League Cup were lifted in his first season in Manchester, that’s not why he was appointed.

It’s no surprise he’s gone. United sit sixth and have no chance of winning the title having made their worst start to a season for 28 years.

Mourinho cannot manage talented young players, two seasons seems to be his lifespan at any club, and his style is defensive and boring. His teams have never been known for their entertaining football but by the end, and that came at Anfield and a 3-1 Liverpool win, the might Manchester United could be compared to Stoke.

Those who back him, a dwindling number, blame Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman who run the club day-to-day, and he has hardly covered himself in glory. However, Mourinho got £395million to spend and his best piece of business was landing Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer.

Paul Pogba cost £89.9m. He is a world class midfielder, key to France winning the World Cup, but Mourinho’s methods, tactics and personality was never going to get the best out of the midfielder.

This also happened with Eden Hazard at Chelsea and, to a degree, Cristiano Ronaldo in Madrid. These are players who don’t need a script, just a ball and a jersey. Not a lecture.

United do not have bad players. Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard are fine young talents but, again, this is where Mourinho fell down. He doesn’t know how to deal with this millennial generation.

They do not respond positively to his criticism. Today’s footballers are thin skinned. None of those mentioned improved under their now former boss. Every player who wanted to did get better under Fergie.

It is impossible not to keep going back to Ferguson. He was old enough to be many of his players’ grandfather and yet the class of 92, Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney bought into everything he said. The Glaswegian said his young players kept him young. Mourinho, 21 years Ferguson’s junior, looks old and beaten.

To be fair, Mourinho was brilliant at Porto with a cynical but hugely talented team which beat Celtic in the 2003 European Cup Final and won the big prize 12 months later. He owned the dressing room at Chelsea first time around and in his two seasons with Inter Milan.

He left Italy in 2010. That was his last truly great season. His CV remains mightily impressive. It’s just that you have to run your finger down the page to get to the really good times.

The best players want to play for Guardiola, Klopp and Pochettino because they want to play with the freedom to express themselves. The very best, who United used to sign, don’t want ridged, joyless football. Mourinho will get another job but time at the top is over.

As United supporter Morrissey, honestly, once put it: the joke isn’t funny any more.