Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has claimed that modern-day footballers are becoming too pampered, labelling the up-and-coming stars as "brats".

The Portuguese has enjoyed plenty of success on the continent in the past, winning silverware with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Man United.

Mourinho insists that he has had to alter his management style over the years due to the changing nature of youngsters' needs, and says that players with the maturity of Chelsea legend Frank Lampard are unlikely to return again.

"I have had to adapt to a new world and what young players are like now," he told France Football. "I had to understand the difference between working with a boy like Frank Lampard who, at the age of 23, was already a man – who thought football, work, professionalism – and the new boys today, who at the age of 23 are kids.

"Today I call them 'boys' and not 'men'. Because I think that they are brats and that everything that surrounds them does not help them in their life nor in my work. I had to adjust to all of that.

"Ten years ago, no player had a mobile phone in the dressing room. That is no longer the case. But you have to go with it, because if you fight that you are bringing about conflict and you risk putting yourself in the stone age."

Mourinho started his coaching career with Vitoria de Setubal in the early 1990s and has since taken permanent charge of eight clubs, including two spells with Chelsea.