Jose Mourinho claims many Sevilla players would get into in his Manchester United team

The United manager compared Sevilla's recent European record to that of his own club

Sevilla's players celebrate their victory at Old Trafford on Tuesday (Getty)

Jose Mourinho has suggested that there was no shame in Manchester United's Champions League exit to Sevilla, adding that several of Vincenzo Montella’s players would get into his own team.

Mourinho defended his Old Trafford tenure in an impassioned press conference on Friday, claiming that United’s lack of success in recent years - a lack of, what he called, “football heritage” - had made his task difficult.

The United manager was widely criticised for his tactics against Sevilla, having adopted a conservative and reactive approach in the first leg away from home and only returning with a goalless draw.

Mourinho hit back at his critics on Friday, however, and compared Sevilla’s recent record in European competition with that of United.

“We went out to a side that’s more successful than Manchester United in last seven years in Europe,” he said. “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.”

Mourinho added: “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.”

The United manager then took aim at “people with a lot of ideas”, who he divided into two groups: ‘idealists’ and ‘idiots’.

“The fans, they read what people write, they listen what people say and the people that write,” he said. “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 ideologist or an idiot. The people, they listen to the ideologists and they also listen to the idiots. That’s life.”