Former Manchester United defender Danny Higginbotham believes it will take years to restore the club to their former glories and blamed fitness for the way Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side finished the season.
United ended a disappointing campaign in sixth place, 32 points behind Premier League winners Man City, missing out on Champions League football for next season.
It's triggered a major rethinking at Old Trafford, though Sky Sports and talkSPORT pundit Higginbotham — who emerged through the ranks at Old Trafford in the late 1990s — has said it will take time to solve the problems.
“When Ole first came in there was a lot of adrenaline around and the team looked good, they looked strong," said Higginbotham.
“But then as the season went on it was plain and obvious for everyone to see – the players aren’t fit enough for Ole’s style.
“That doesn’t mean they’re not fit players, because you have different styles of football.
“If you took Klopp or Guardiola and got them to take over this United squad now, regardless of the different in quality between the groups of players, the United players can’t play in that way. It requires a different level of fitness.
“That’s the way Ole wants to play but Mourinho played a different way, so their fitness levels need to go up considerably because of the style of play Solskjaer wants to bring to the team."
Higginbotham then added that United have to build the "foundations" in order to bridge the gap to City and Liverpool and challenge for a first league title since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013.
“It’s a long-term project," he added. "Anybody that thinks Man United are going to challenge Man City and Liverpool next season, you need to take a step back.
“You’ve got to build the house slowly but surely, you’ve got to have the foundations and United have not had foundations for a number of years now.”
