Jose Mourinho delivered a remarkable 12-minute case for the defence as he prepared for a last throw of the trophy dice against Albion.

Mourinho spoke passionately about his Manchester United record in the wake of the shock Champions League exit to Sevilla.

After the struggles of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, the Old Trafford giants turned to the Portuguese boss in a bid to bring success back to the club.

United won the Europa League, EFL Cup and Community Shield in his first season, but the FA Cup is now the only silverware they can realistically achieve this time out.

They need to beat the Seagulls to keep those hopes alive.

Mourinho has been criticised by pundits and fans for his approach over both legs against Sevilla, but initially appeared in jovial mood at a press conference ahead of the quarter-final against the Seagulls.

“Hello, hello, I’m alive, I’m here,” he told journalists in an exaggerated fashion, going onto answer four questions in a standard manner before one on the fans’ reaction to the Sevilla loss brought an extraordinary reaction.

“Fans are the fans, and the fans have the right to have their opinions and to have their reactions,” Mourinho said.

“But there is something that I used to call football heritage - I try to translate from my Portuguese, which is almost perfect to my English that is far from perfect.

“But translation, word by word is something like football heritage and what a manager inherits is something like is that the last time Manchester United won the Champions League, which didn’t happen a lot of times, was in 2008. The (last) final was 2011.”

Then Mourinho, using pre-prepared notes, went through each of United’s European seasons since that final against Barcelona in detail before attention turned to the Premier League and wider matters.

He highlighted Manchester City’s recent success, name-checking some of their established players, before adding: “Do you know how many of United players that left the club last season? See where they play. Where they play, how they play, if they play. That’s football heritage.

“And one day when I leave, the next Manchester United manager will find here (Romelu) Lukaku, (Nemanja) Matic, of course (David) De Gea from many years ago, they will find players with a different mentality, with a different quality, with a different background, with a different status, with a different knowhow.”

The United boss then pointed to the European giants that have dominated the Champions League in recent years, before affirming his position as United managers for years to come.

“And the good thing for me and the amazing feeling for me is that I am (on) exactly in the same page as the owners, as (executive vice-chairman) Mr (Ed) Woodward, as (managing director) Mr (Richard) Arnold,” he said.

It is an “amazing job” he would much prefer to be doing rather than in “the kind of league you win before the league starts”, even if that means being booed by some United fans.

“I am here and I am going to be here, and no way - no way - I am going to change my mentality,” Mourinho said defiantly.

“I am not going to disappear from the tunnel, running immediately.

“The next match I’ll be the first to go out.

“I respect the fans, I am not afraid anything. I am not afraid of my responsibilities.”