Mourinho admits United are out of title race

JOSE MOURINHO has conceded the Premier League title — while bemoaning a lack of winners in his Manchester United squad.

In a frank admission, the Portuguese declared it is ‘very obvious’ that United cannot catch runaway leaders Chelsea and, speaking ahead of today’s trip to Leicester City, decried the shortage of champions in his side.

‘We cannot win the Premier League, that is very obvious,’ said Mourinho, before drawing attention to United’s progress in the Europa League, FA Cup and EFL Cup. ‘I don’t know how many points or matches Chelsea have to lose or victories we have to make in a row, but in another three competitions we can win. We have to fight for these competitions.’

United currently lie in sixth place, 17 points behind his former employers and Mourinho’s comments make the optimistic stance he took when he arrived in Manchester at the start of the season a distant memory.

Back then he declared that winning the title, something United have not done since Sir Alex Ferguson’s final year in 2013, was the target.

Now, he believes that even failure to make the top four cannot be a measure of success.

‘Arsenal has to be (there),’ he said. ‘Tottenham has to be, Chelsea has to be, Manchester City has to be, Liverpool has to be. I honestly think six teams have to be and some are better prepared than others, with more consistent work over the past years. So I don’t think you can even measure it by that.’ Mourinho (left), who has never finished lower than third after a full season at a club, has spoken of the need for players who are born winners. And he was quick to respond when asked if he had enough of those in his evolving squad.

‘No,’ he said. ‘It is something that of course we don’t have enough (of). And the ones with a history of success where that belongs to their natural habitat, (Wayne) Rooney, (Michael) Carrick, who else? Zlatan (Ibrahimovic), but not in our club, Antonio Valencia and not much.’

While the 54-year-old refused to be drawn on a summer transfer in which United are expected to pursue a £130million double swoop for Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann and Benfica defender Victor Lindelof, he did reveal that incomings will be high on the agenda.

He said: ‘There is an empty space and I have to fill that.’