Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has said players with the maturity of Frank Lampard are a disappearing breed – and that most 23-year-olds in the game today are “brats”.

However, he says he has been forced to adapt his management style to cope with immature younger players because he does not want to risk being left in the “stone age”.

Mourinho worked with Lampard for four highly-successful seasons at Stamford Bridge, first working alongside him during Chelsea’s title-winning 2004/05 campaign.

Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho Show all 13 1 /13 Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho January 2005, after the Carling Cup semi-final first leg "I think Mourinho has opened a can of worms for himself. We remember what happened in Porto. Look back a couple of weeks to the penalty decision that went their way against Liverpool and how Rafael Benitez handled that. But then Drogba reacted by grabbing Quinton Fortune by the throat, so I wonder whether the FA's compliance unit will be thinking about that." 2005 Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho December 2006, after Mourinho suggested a five-point gap was only two as the teams had to play "I'm trembling. It's good that I know we've lost the game in April, because we can have a rest that weekend. I'll put my reserve team in that day [April 14]. The first team can save their energy for the next game. Hopefully, we'll be 20 points ahead by then!" 2005 Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho December 2006 "We will only be in trouble if we listen to Jose too much. I won’t be letting the players fall into the trap of thinking it’s won because all we have done is given ourselves a foundation. There are many hurdles to be navigated in the run-in. To win the league, you have to have great consistency, particularly around March and April. Historically, we have done okay at that time of the year." 2006 AFP Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho March 2007, after Mourinho claimed Man Utd got decisions from referees "His football club have been involved in so many things about referees over the years. It seems to me that, if you contest something at Chelsea and they don't get their own way, then something happens. Either referees or players are threatened and things like that. It's an incredible club. I think he should button his lip now for the rest of the season. I may be only just beginning because there is plenty for me to talk about with Jose and referees, and Chelsea and referees. I've got a catalogue of them, a big file, in my office if you want me to bring it out. But we'll leave that for another day." 2006 Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho April 2007, after Mourinho again complained about referees "Mourinho seems to be on some sort of personal crusade. I am surprised no action has been taken. It's calculated. We have four games to go now. If we get a penalty against us, Mourinho wins that war. That is wrong. It is a rant all the time now. I don't think it is fair to the game." Getty Images Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho September 2007, after Mourinho was sacked "It is a disappointment for the game. He was terrific for football and terrific for Chelsea. I enjoyed the competition with him. He was something fresh and new to our game. I don't know what I will do with my wine now. I wish him well." 2007 AFP Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho March 2009, ahead of first leg clash with Inter "I think that when Jose came that there was a great upsurge in Chelsea's position in the game. It happened suddenly. He came in, he uttered those words, 'I'm the special one,' and it seemed to galvanize the whole club." 2009 Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho March 2011, in an interview with Sports Illustrated "He's at the top, there's no doubt about that. You have certain criteria in terms of top management, and that is longevity of success—which is very difficult today—and what you win. You have to regard his achievements as really first-class." 2013 AFP Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho April 2011, after Mourinho was linked with Mourinho under pressure at Real Madrid “I am great friends with Jose and we often speak about his future. I can understand his desire to come back to England. There is more freedom from media attention for a manager here, you don’t have Marca and the radio programmes at midnight that he gets constantly in Madrid. But it’s a difficult one for me to tell him when this position will become available.” Getty Images Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho December 2011, in a new book titled Jose Mourinho, The Secrets of his Success "I look at Jose and I see myself reflected in many of the things he does. In the first year at Chelsea when I saw him running along the touchline at Old Trafford, he reminded me of my first years at Aberdeen jumping, raising my arms, celebrating. We're only human. We can't hide our emotions. They're always there, they're part of who we are, of our character." 2013 Manchester United FC Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho December 2012, in an interview "He can manage anywhere, absolutely. I'm not going to put any forecasts on what is going to happen at this club. I won't last forever, but José can manage anywhere, there is no question about that."I would never think a guy who hasn't played a game could be a top coach but then you've got to look at his personality. He's got a marvellous, strong personality and that bridges that gap. I remember his first press conference [at Chelsea, in 2004] and I thought: 'Christ, he's a cocky bastard, him'. He was telling the players: 'Look, I'm the special one, we don't lose games'. Bloody hell, coming to England, he is only a young man and saying he is the special one! But it told all the players to have the belief they were going to win the league." Getty Images Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho December 2014, speaking to Clare Balding "It is unfair really. He’s good looking, he’s got that sort of George Clooney bit in his hair now. But I think he is a great example, he can speak five languages or whatever he can. He goes and becomes an interpreter for Bobby Robson, follows him to Barcelona, works under Louis Van Gaal; he is learning all the time. He has got a determination, he wants to be a coach. He never played the game, by the way – you tell me how many presidents would give a manager a job who has never played the game? None. But he has done it. Then he goes and manages a small team in Portugal, then goes to Porto and wins the league, wins the Uefa Cup, wins the European Cup, goes to Chelsea and wins the league. Goes to Inter Milan. That is an example to anyone who wants to do well, you shouldn’t let the barriers get in your way if you want to get there." Getty Images Sir Alex Ferguson on Jose Mourinho December 2015, 10 days before Chelsea sacked Mourinho for the second time "He has sacked so many coaches... that I am sure he has learned by it. He has to trust and have confidence Jose can turn it around. There is no point in sacking one of the best coaches of all time. He's won the European Cup twice; he's won the league in each country he's managed in, he's won the big trophies. It would be foolish to take that step to sack him. That would be bad management; it's poor leadership, that. It's the first time he's been confronted with non-success. If you look at his whole career it's been nothing but a rise all the time, so for the first time in his life he's had to deal with bad publicity, adversity, and that's a challenge but there are signs he is getting back to a balanced level even though they lost on Saturday... For Jose, all good leaders will eventually find a solution. He will find a solution... It's not looking great at the moment, but I know the guy and work he has done in football and I can't see it lasting long." 2015 Getty Images

And Mourinho thinks that in the decade since young players with a comparable level of maturity have all but disappeared from the game, blasting 23-year-olds in the game today as “brats” who do not deserve to be called “men”.

“I have had to adapt to a new world and what young players are like now,” Mourinho said in an interview with France Football.

“I had to understand the difference between working with a boy like Frank Lampard who, at the age of 23, was already a man – who thought football, work, professionalism – and the new boys today, who at the age of 23 are kids.

“Today I call them ‘boys’ and not ‘men’. Because I think that they are brats and that everything that surrounds them does not help them in their life nor in my work. I had to adjust to all of that.

“Ten years ago, no player had a mobile phone in the dressing room. That is no longer the case. But you have to go with it, because if you fight that you are bringing about conflict and you risk putting yourself in the stone age.”

Mourinho wishes more young players were like Lampard (AFP/Getty)

Mourinho, 54, added that his young son and daughter have helped him to understand the mind-set of young players in the modern game, and their passion for social media.

“I admit that having a son and a daughter at that sort of age has helped me to understand the way they function and what the world is today,” he said. “If you stop a player from doing something, even something a little stupid, on social media, you are going against nature.”

The growing immaturity of younger players is not the only way the game has changed since Mourinho first arrived in England, having led Porto to Champions League glory in 2004.

Mourinho: Authorities don’t give a s**t about English teams in Europe

Mourinho has said that his position at Manchester United has been made much more difficult by “the new era of English football”, which has seen United’s increasingly wealthy Premier League rivals able to keep hold of their best players, as the traditional top four morphed into a top six.

“The financial strength in English football is enormous and it does not exist only among two clubs, like in Spain, not among one club like in Germany, not among one or two clubs like in France,” he said. “In England, it is spread out.

“Here, everyone is powerful now. The scenery has changed. If I want to buy a player from Tottenham, I can’t. Nor can I buy a player from Manchester City or Arsenal. That was not the case before.

“At Chelsea, I brought in Shaun Wright-Phillips, who was the best player at Manchester City or Ashley Cole from Arsenal. Sir Alex, when he wanted the best player from Tottenham, he bought Michael Carrick and then Berbatov.

“In England now, the clubs are so powerful financially that the market is open to all.”

The balance of power is shifting, according to Mourinho (Getty)

Mourinho also used the interview to discuss the mounting pressure on football managers in the modern game and how loyalty is now a thing of the past.

And in his opinion, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is the last of a dying breed of football managers given the time to succeed by their club, and to develop a long-term project.

Is Wenger the last of a dying breed? (Getty)

“Wenger will be the last one,” he said. “When he leaves Arsenal, we won’t see again, in the decade that follows, a manager staying in the same club for more than seven years, ok, maximum ten. It has become impossible.

“Even in this country, which is home to tradition and stability, everything is in the process of becoming screwed up. The clubs are owned by foreign investors, no longer by traditional English people with the policies that came with that.