He leaves with the Lancashire club second bottom of the league.

“It is with great sadness the board announce that Paul Ince is to leave the club,” read a statement on Blackburn’s club website. “After a board meeting yesterday it was decided to relieve Paul of his duties.

“The board, having selected Paul back in June, were desperate for him to succeed and wanted to give him as much time as possible in the unforgiving environment of Premier League management, where time is such a precious commodity.”

Chairman John Williams added: “Three wins in 17 games has seen a squad, which finished seventh last season, fall to 19th position. We are currently in real danger of becoming detached from the pack.

“The survival of the club in the Premier League is paramount and our focus now is on finding a replacement who will be able to maintain our top division status.

“Paul will bounce back, he is a fighter and we wish him well.”

United are ready to send the Angola international away on-loan in January and both Blackburn and West Brom are keen to snap him up.

Ince told the club’s official website: “My comments were taken out of context, for there is no way that I would ever make disparaging remarks about women’s football.

“In response to a question, I was simply trying to illustrate that the Premier League is a physically tough and very demanding environment.”

Asked about how you plan for playing against United’s four deadly weapons, the Rovers boss admitted: “It’s scary, isn’t it?

“You can spend all week, as I have done, discussing tactics and personnel. I probably thought about playing 20,000 different teams. But when a team is that good, sometimes you can’t do anything about it.

“We tried hard and went in there with a lot of confidence. But they are so good.

“They’re a fantastic team, they always play with pace and wingers and they’re a joy to watch at times.

“Even so, I was proud of my lads. We’ll learn from this game.

“When United play like that they’re awesome.

“People were saying they weren’t playing well — but they have so much quality.

“When you can bring on Tevez from the bench, who would probably cost more than our entire first 11, that just shows what you are up against.”

He admits his attack on his former captain in a fly-on-the-wall documentary called ‘The Alex Ferguson Story’ was ill-judged.

Ferguson said: “That was a mistake. I allowed cameras into the dressing room when I had never done so before — and I will not do it again.

“It wasn’t a honeymoon with Paul all the time because he was such a volatile player. But I admired his qualities as a player, he was a real fighter.”

Ferguson faces Ince as a rival boss for the first time today when he takes champions United to Blackburn.

Blackburn Rovers boss Paul Ince is excited by the prospect of facing Manchester United and his old gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson.

“They are one of the best teams in the world,” said the Rovers chief. “We are all aware of the task ahead of us, but it is a task that we are relishing and really looking forward to.

“They’ve got a fantastic squad - not just the eleven players that they put on the pitch. Anderson will probably come in or (Darren) Fletcher or (Ryan) Giggs, so we are still talking about world class players replacing world class players. Then you’ve got (Dimitar) Berbatov and (Carlos) Tevez as well.

“They are such a good side it doesn’t matter who they field against us, it is going to be a very, very tough game.

“But that is the exciting aspect of coming to the Premier League and managing. You get the chance to pit your wits against the best manager of all time as far as I’m concerned. It will be nice to lock horns.”