Jose Mourinho press conference part two: Full transcript of Manchester United manager's answers

When the cameras stopped rolling, Mourinho continued to defend his United record

Jose Mourinho defended his tenure so far at a heated press conference (Getty)

Jose Mourinho passionately defended his track record at Manchester United during a heated press conference on Friday, blaming the club’s ‘football heritage’ for their exit from the Champions League.

The United manager embarked on an extraordinary 12-and-a-half minute monologue, in which he discussed United’s lack of success in recent years and their struggles to compete with Manchester City.

Mourinho maintained his defiant stance when taking follow-up questions from the written press, claiming that it would be ‘difficult’ to compete with City next season unless the Premier League leaders suddenly stop spending.

Having seen Sevilla knock his side out of Europe on Tuesday, Mourinho went on to say that “many” of Vincenzo Montella’s players would slot straight into his United team, then added that his own players must “grow up” in order to meet expectations.

Here is the full transcript of the second part of Mourinho’s Friday press conference...

Jose Mourinho’s pre-Brighton press conference

If everyone’s ‘on the same page’, does it mean that next season, you have to seriously challenge for the Premier League and give it a good fight all the way?

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 develop a process, to go for the jugular and another is to build a different process. If the clubs that are in better situation than us, if they stop to invest and we keep investing – not just in spending, but also in information and time...

Because when my Chelsea didn’t have English players apart from John Terry, it was because we didn’t have English players, and now we are the team with the youngest players playing in the team regular. In my time here, the player with the most appearances is Marcus Rashford, the one that many of you say does not play with me is the player with more appearances. We have Scott McTominay, who is not in your national team because you don’t want. He could be, he is an English boy in fact. We have Jesse Lingard, and so on and so on...

I lost a little bit because I was speaking about these guys now but to say that if the clubs are in a better situation than us stop investing and we do 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.

Surely you’re not saying you can never catch up?

I’m not saying that. You have the best view of it. I won the Champions League with Inter, I did not win the Champions League with Real Madrid or Barcelona, or with Ronaldo or Messi. I never played with Messi and when I was Ronaldo’s manager we didn’t manage to win the Champions League. We can and we’ll fight for it again, no doubts.

When you went to Real Madrid that Barcelona side was all conquering. Is the challenge you face here in trying to topple Manchester City greater?

Probably similar, but obviously Real Madrid had the nucleus of players of a really high level, and because it’s not easy for me to speak about my players, it’s easy to speak about the players who are not mine anymore. You see for example where are the players that didn’t play in Real Madrid and left the club to play, or because the club didn’t want to keep them. {Raul] Albiol, [Jose] Callejon, they are top players for Napoli. See where are our players who are not here.

Are you as confident as you were at Real Madrid that you can win that battle?

I’m always confident. Using the word in football, substitutions, bringing it to life and to the job, there is no substitute for hard work and belief. No chance. You cannot change and I will not change.

In terms of progress, do you feel ahead of schedule? That felt like a big setback on Tuesday...

Can you tell me what’s the difference between being out of the Champions League in last 16 or quarter finals? In terms of the process, what’s the difference?

You said you could still have a final, in the quarter-final...

I told from the mental point of view, but I also told we are not one of the top teams, not one of the favourites to win. I told you that with these words because I cannot tell you with different words while I am still in competition. I cannot be in competition, go there and say we have no chance to win the Champions League. I couldn’t tell you.

It’s the same thing. You cannot expect me to say ‘this and that player, they have to do better’. You cannot expect me to say. I prefer to say that Matic and Lukaku are performing at a high level since day one until the last match, I cannot tell you the ones that are not performing. I cannot tell you before a Champions League match.

I have to speak about Chris [Hughton] in Brighton. Of course, he has chances to go to the semi finals, of course he has a chance to win the competition, but do you think Chris can say: ‘We have no chance to win at Old Trafford.’ He cannot say that. Of course he doesn’t feel it, but even if he feels it he can’t say it. Do you think I can go to the press conference and say before Sevilla we have no chance, if we are not out in the last 16 we will be out in the last eight, or in the last four? It’s obvious I cannot say many of the things.

Big difference between going out to Barcelona or Real Madrid than to Sevilla. You went out to a side with -6 goal...

We went out to a side that’s more successful than Manchester United in last seven years in Europe. We went out to a side that has a huge tradition in knockout competitions, a side in the Spanish cup final. We are out to a team that knocked out Atletico Madrid in two legs. We are knocked out to a team that is brilliant in their approach for many years, with their scouting system, the way they invest with every Euro they have. They’re a team with a great deal of experience at the highest level, playing every week against Real Madrid, Valencia, Atletico, Barcelona, the best players.

Do you think they didn’t have any players who could play direct in my team? I cannot name them. If I name them their agents will jump with happiness and they will say: ‘Tag, tag, price’, this and that. In Sevilla, there are many players who would play in my team.

So the fans, they read what people write, they listen what people say and the people that write, the people that say, are people with a lot of ideas and I used to call them idealists or idiots – they can be both. In my dictionary, the dictionary of life, a person with a lot of ideas can be an ideologists or an idiot. The people, they listen to the ideologists and they also listen to the idiots. That’s life.

Are you saying to fans be more realistic and have lower expectations?

I’m saying the fans have to be sad with being out and the players have to learn how to cope with that level of expectation and that level of pressure. They have to survive and when they survive they become stronger. An easy life and the fans not upset and no critics, that’s not good. If you want to make a real top team with top mentality, they need to grow up and the best way to grow up is to have this kind of feeling. I don’t want the fans to have low expectations, I want the fans to have high expectations because I want the players to have expectations too.