Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho: It will be 'difficult' to compete with Manchester City next season

Mourinho claimed that United would only be 'side to side' with City if their rivals stop spending

Jose Mourinho believes Manchester City will be hard to catch next season (Getty)

Jose Mourinho has claimed that it will be difficult for Manchester United to compete with Manchester City unless their rivals suddenly stop investing in their squad.

The United manager made an impassioned defence of his Old Trafford record on Friday, at one point embarking on an extraordinary 12-and-a-half minute monologue supported by a pre-prepared sheet of statistics.

Mourinho doubled down on his claim that Tuesday’s Champions League exit against Sevilla was nothing new to the club considering, what he called, their recent “football heritage” of disappointment in Europe.

After recounting each of United’s European campaigns since reaching the Champions League final in 2011, Mourinho turned his sights to domestic matters and unfavourably compared the club’s record to that of City.

Pep Guardiola’s side currently sit 16 points clear of United at the top of the Premier League table and could be crowned champions against Mourinho’s side next month.

When asked whether he expects to challenge City next season, given this lack of so-called “football heritage”, Mourinho suggested United are “not ready to win” and claimed the league leaders’ level of spending will make it difficult.

“We try but the reality is that some clubs, they were ready to win. They were ready to win. You know what I mean? Other clubs are not ready to win. One thing is to go for the jugular and another is to build a different process.

“If the clubs that are in a better situation than us stop investing and we invest, we can be side to side. If they keep investing the same or more than us, it’s difficult. It’s as simple as that. It’s difficult.”

United have spent £286m on transfer fees since Mourinho’s arrival in the summer of 2016. Guardiola was appointed at the Etihad the same summer and has overseen a £448m outlay at the Etihad.

However, Mourinho claimed that City’s title charge was not only being powered by recent spending, but also several players present before Guardiola’s time in charge.

“[Nicolas] Otamendi, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, [David] Silva, [Raheem] Sterling, [Sergio] Aguero. They are investments from the past, not from the last two years,” he noted.

Mourinho would not rule out a title challenge next year and insisted he is “always confident” of overcoming obstacles in his career.

“Using the word in football – substitutions – bringing it to life and to the job, there is no substitute for hard work and belief,” he said. “No chance. You cannot change and I will not change.”

However, he also admitted to seeing similarities between his current situation and his three years at Real Madrid, when he went toe-to-toe with Guardiola’s Barcelona and won one league title to the Catalan’s two.