• United manager points to what he inherited at Old Trafford • Mourinho reads statistics from recent years to make his case

José Mourinho defended his Manchester United record in an extraordinary 12-minute monologue after being widely criticised in the wake of the Champions League defeat by Sevilla.

He stated his players needed to “grow up” and that the club’s “football heritage” of recent poor European performances meant there should be no surprise at Tuesday’s last-16 exit. The manager also said he was going nowhere and pointed out it was only 10 months since he won a trophy.

Mourinho, whose side host Brighton in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, defiantly read a prepared sheet of statistics regarding United in Europe since 2011, when they reached the final.

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“There is football heritage,” he said. “And what [I inherited] is the last time Manchester United won the Champions League, which didn’t happen a lot of times, was in 2008. Since 2011: 2012, out in the group phase. In 2013, out at Old Trafford in the last 16, I was on the other bench [as Real Madrid manager].

“In 2014, out in the quarter-final. In 2015, no European football. In 2016, back to European football, out in the group phase, go to the Europa League and out in the second knockout.

“In 2017, play the Europa League, win it with me and United go back to the Champions League. In 2018, win the group phase with 15 points out of a possible 18, and lose at home in the last 16. So in seven years with four different managers, once not qualify for Europe, twice out in the group phase and the best was the quarter-final – this is football heritage.

“ We went out to a side that’s more successful than Manchester United in the last seven years in Europe. Do you think they didn’t have any players who could play in my team? I cannot name them – if I name them their agents will jump with happiness and they will say: ‘Tag, tag, price.’ In Sevilla, there are many players who would play in my team.

“The fans, they read what people write, they listen to what people say, and the people that write, the people that say, are people with a lot of ideas. I used to call them idealists or idiots – they can be both.”

Mourinho pointed to United’s Premier League record and that of Manchester City. He claimed he inherited an inferior squad to the one Pep Guardiola did at City. “The last victory was ’12-13 and in the four seasons [since then] United finish seventh, fourth, fifth and sixth. So in the last four years the best was fourth.

“In the last seven years the worst position of Manchester City was fourth. In the last seven years Manchester City was champions twice and if you want to say three times [meaning this season, too], and they were second twice. That’s heritage.

“Do you know what is also heritage? Is that Otamendi, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Silva, Sterling, Agüero, they are investments from the past, not from the last two years [since Guardiola took over]. The United players that left the club last season – see where they play, how they play, if they play,” he said of Wayne Rooney, Adnan Januzaj, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Memphis Depay, Morgan Schneiderlin, Víctor Valdés, Paddy McNair, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Donald Love.

“One day when I leave, the next Manchester United manager will find here Lukaku, Matic, of course De Gea from many years ago. They will find players with a different mentality, quality, background, with a different status, know-how.”

Mourinho believes he is rebuilding the squad and questioned whether going one round further in the Champions League would have mattered. “In terms of the process, what’s the difference – between being in last 16 or quarter-finals?” he said. He was reminded that he had noted before Tuesday’s game that teams can smell the final once in the last eight. “I cannot be in competition and say we have no chance,” he reflected on Friday.

Mourinho criticised the bulk of his squad by picking out only two players for unqualified praise. “I prefer to say that Matic and Lukaku are performing at a high level until the last match,” he said. “I cannot tell you the ones that are not performing.”

Mourinho was adamant United are playing catch-up and could give no assurance they will compete seriously for the title next season or progress further in the Champions League. “We try but the reality is that some clubs, they were ready to win,” he said, in reference to City. “Other clubs are not ready. One thing is to go for the jugular and another is to build a different process. I’m not saying that [we will never catch up]. I won the Champions League with Inter [in 2010]. We can and we’ll fight for it again, no doubts.”

Asked if supporters should lower expectations he said: “The players have to learn how to cope with that level of expectation and 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, you need to grow up and the best way 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.”

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Mourinho bullishly alluded to his record. “I am not going to run away or disappear or to cry because I heard a few boos. I’m not going to disappear from the tunnel, running immediately. I am not afraid of my responsibilities.”