United have 'a giant on our chest'

United will enter at the group stage of the Champions League when it starts next month. Mourinho, however, has compared his team's struggles in Europe to having “a giant on our chest”.

After pre-season friendlies against Barcelona and Real Madrid, and a Super Cup loss to the latter, Mourinho admitted his side have a major challenge ahead of them to try and catch up with other continental heavyweights. 

He said, “Manchester United are one of the top three football clubs in the world, no doubt about it, but the football club is one thing and the team’s credentials going into a competition are another thing entirely. We have a giant on our chest, which is really heavy, but we don’t compare our potential to the biggest clubs in Europe right now."

“We’ll take it step by step and be humble. The first step is to try to finish in the top three. If we manage that, we’ll try to finish in the top two. Then, when you’re in the Champions League last 16 draw, anything can happen.”

Forbes named United the world's richest club in June, worth £2.79bn, but the Red Devils boss claimed that other teams are more than capabale of competing financially, making his job a lot more difficult.

“Because Manchester United is a real giant, it doesn’t matter if the club is somewhat far away from that level for three, four, five or 10 years. It doesn’t matter: the club will always be a giant. But our job is to try to bring the football club back to that stature. That’s really difficult these days,” he said.

“Before, the giants were the powerful ones economically, and now there are small clubs in terms of prestige and history, who are giants economically. That changes absolutely everything. I want the team to be on a par with the club’s history, which is something I’ve been lucky enough to feel at every club – there was the same kind of feeling at Inter and at Real Madrid."

“We are going to do that, step by step. Last season we won trophies. Playing against the European champions [on Tuesday], it’s like we’re back at the theatre, back at that level. This is where we want to be. We’ll improve the team and try to be at that level, to constantly be improving. And I think we’re going to reach that level as a football team in the next couple of years.”

Meanwhile, Mourinho is covinced that Paul Pogba will have a big impact at Old Trafford this season. He added, “I’m more than happy [with him] I’m really happy. He was amazing in the [Europa League] final.”

“I’m totally convinced this season will be even better for him, and that playing in the Champions League against the best teams and players will take some pressure off him, because in the Europa League, he was obviously one of the two or three biggest stars.”