Mourinho: We Will Fight Again

A determined Jose Mourinho insists that Manchester United can compete for UEFA Champions League glory next season, after missing out on a place in Friday’s quarter-final draw.

Shortly after the draw was made, the boss spoke to the media ahead of the Reds’ Emirates FA Cup quarter-final against Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford on Saturday evening.

After the disappointment of going out to Sevilla in midweek, Mourinho was asked by reporters in his press conference at the Aon Training Complex whether United can seriously challenge for major trophies with further investment.

He admitted it would be tough to achieve if rivals continue to invest at a significant rate but he spoke passionately about his burning desire to secure a third Champions League triumph of his career at United in the near future, after previous success in Europe’s elite competition with FC Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.

“If the clubs that are in a better situation than us, if they stop investing in everything and we invest, I would say we are side to side,” the boss said. “But if they are in a better situation than us, and they keep investing the same or more than us, it’s difficult. It's as simple as that – it’s difficult.

“I’m not saying [we will never catch up]. You have the best proof of it. I won the Champions League with Inter. I didn't win the Champions League with Real Madrid, or with Barcelona, or with [Cristiano] Ronaldo, or with [Lionel] Messi. When I was Ronaldo’s manager, we didn’t manage to win the Champions League.

“But we can [win it] and we are going to fight for it again, no doubt.”

The boss was also keen to point out that the Reds were beaten by a good team in Sevilla, who won the Europa League in three successive seasons prior to United winning the competition in Mourinho’s first season in charge last term, and are a better side than many pundits have suggested.

“We went out to a side that has been more successful than Manchester United in the last seven years in Europe,” Mourinho said. “We played a side that has a huge tradition in knockout competitions. We are going to a side that is in the Spanish Cup final and knocked out Atletico Madrid in two legs.

“They invest wisely and have a team with a great deal of experience at the highest level playing every week against Real Madrid, against Valencia, against Atletico Madrid, against Barcelona – against the players.”

Although fans will naturally be disappointed to miss out on a place in the last eight of the Champions League, the boss insisted that supporters should always be ambitious and have high expectations of their team.

“The fans will be sad at being out, with the players,” Mourinho added. “The players have to learn how to cope with that level of expectation and that level of pressure and they have to survive and when they survive they become stronger.

“[It is an] Easy life if the fans not upset and no critics, but that’s not good because if you want to make a real top team with a top mentality, the team needs to grow up. The best way to grow up is to have this kind of feeling.

“I don’t want the fans to have lower expectations. I want the fans to have high expectations because I want the players to have high expectations too.”