Pep Guardiola has bluntly responded to Jim Ratcliffe's aim to knock Manchester City "off their perch" by pointing out he speaks "the truth".
Ratcliffe completed his purchase of a 27.7% in Manchester United this week and immediately set out his ambitions to restore the club to the top of the English and European game.
He did this by reprising the language of Alex Ferguson, who similarly pledged to rein in Liverpool in his early days as manager at Old Trafford.
United have won just one trophy compared to City's 14 in the past six seasons and Guardiola feels Ratcliffe's acceptance of the Blues' current pre-eminent status is the Red Devils' first step towards a fightback.
The City manager said: "It's the truth! As (soon) as the teams admit it, they will be closer to us.
"If they want to deny it for things that are not the reality then it's their problem. It's not our problem.
"When I've been below teams I've always admired them and thought about what we need to do to be close, to challenge them.
"If they want to be judged on things they are comfortable with for one day they will not arrive where we are now.
"When we were below and United were winning, we were watching them, admiring them. We wanted to learn from them.
"The period of Alex Ferguson - the generation with Roy Keane, David Beckham, Gary Neville - and all those big, big players, Rio Ferdinand - I'm pretty sure City admired and thought 'we want to be there'. Now we are there.
"That's why, for these type of comments, that I have the feeling that they will be back."
While Guardiola now expects United to improve under the guidance of Ratcliffe, who has taken control of footballing operations at Old Trafford, he insisted it was not something that concerned him.
The Spaniard said: "It's not about (being) worried. I'm pretty sure with Jim Ratcliffe and the other people that United are going to take a step forwards.
"I feel that they know exactly what they have to do, appoint the people they need to appoint with their experience in the business world to make projects better.
"But that is normal. It's not just United. All the teams want it. We want to be there and as long as I'm here, we will try to be there again.
"What I want is Man City, my team, being there. The rest, I don't care."
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