The curious case of Sky Sports’ three-minute U-turn on the futures of Van Gaal and Mourinho

This is a strange one, so please bear with us...

Just after 4pm on Tuesday afternoon, Sky Sports News tweeted a video filed by their northern correspondent James Cooper reporting that Louis van Gaal was due to remain as the manager of Manchester United this summer. It was from a segment that had aired on the channel earlier in the afternoon. Then, just a few minutes later, the tweet was deleted and a fresh video posted that somewhat contradicted the previous claim. This time it was Andy Burton reporting that Sky Sports' sources now understood the following: "Jose Mourinho has been told the Manchester United job is his this summer, if the club's owners decide to sack Louis van Gaal at the end of the season...Mourinho had a dinner meeting [in central London] last night with agent Jorge Mendes and his lawyer to discuss his next managerial move."

LISTEN: An update on Mourinho's situation. If Van Gaal leaves Mourinho will be given the Man United job. #SSNHQ https://t.co/cIE9anyAnq

— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) May 17, 2016

Now taken on face value, that isn't really telling us much. It's Mourinho's job if they sack Van Gaal? What the f*ck kind of news is that? But in conjunction with the earlier deletion, it perhaps tells us more. One would assume that the rapid change of editorial tac resulted from an urgent update following the previous report that Van Gaal's job was safe.

Via @thedevilstweets, who really needs to recharge his battery

Whether it was the club or perhaps Mourinho's camp clarifying/correcting Sky's 'Van Gaal will stay' report, they were obviously very keen to leave the door open for the Portuguese's recruitment. The caveat of '...if they decide to sack Van Gaal' is just paper thin enough so as not to ruffle any feathers prior to Saturday's FA Cup final. We're reaching a little here, but we aren't entirely sure that Sky's second report is quite as meaningless as it sounds. Someone was clearly going around briefing urgently, and why will perhaps become clearer after the weekend.