Pep Guardiola tells Manchester United to 'accept reality' of Man City power shift

Manchester United must accept the reality of being underdogs in the Manchester derby before they can hope to catch up and overtake Manchester City.

That is the warning from Pep Guardiola, who opened up on United's attempts to 'knock City off their perch', in the words of their new co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

After Ratcliffe's purchase of around 27 per cent of United, taking over the football operations, the new chief has set about making some high-profile appointments off the field, including City chief operating officer Omar Berrada as CEO. Former City academy director Jason Wilcox could follow, with Ratcliffe waxing lyrical over City's off-field operations and on-field quality.

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In particular, Ratcliffe described City's dismantling of Real Madrid in the Champions League last season as the best football he had ever seen - better than the glory days of Sir Matt Busby or Sir Alex Ferguson at his beloved United. Guardiola called those comments 'an honour', and agreed with the idea that United can only move forward when they are completely honest in accepting how far they are behind his City organisation.

"The best way to improve is to know exactly what really happened, honestly. The best way is say with yourself what is the reality, what are we doing, what is the next chapter," Guardiola said with a smile.

"When you are bad, you are bad. When you are not good, you are not good. It happened with us, we have to accept it. After that is the best way. When they accept still they are a little bit [behind], that's the