Jamie Carragher believes Manchester United have no chance of toppling their bitter rivals Manchester City until Pep Guardiola leaves the Premier League.

New United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe announced his intention to knock City ‘off their perch’ last week after his £1.3bn investment in the club was officially ratified.

But United are currently 15 points behind City in the table and have not finished above them since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. Carragher feels there are reasons to be optimistic at Old Trafford after Ratcliffe bought a 25 per cent stake in the club, but does not expect United to leapfrog City any time soon.

‘United can change owners, headhunt the best chief executive and sporting director in the world, revamp their recruitment department, rebuild Old Trafford and appoint their best manager since Sir Alex Ferguson. It doesn’t matter. So long as Guardiola is around, City will lose no sleep.

New part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants Man United to knock Man City off their perch 

Jamie Carragher doesn’t believe it will be possible until Pep Guardiola leaves English football

Carragher feels United will not be able to leapfrog City any time soon despite Ratcliffe’s arrival

‘United will never be the most dominant club in their city, let alone the rest of the country, until City are in the process of hiring a new coach.’

Carragher alluded to how getting the better of top-class managers has always proved a difficult task, with Ferguson winning 13 titles in 21 seasons at United before walking away from the dugout. 

Guardiola’s contract at City is set to expire next year, which Carragher believes offers United hope that they could start to close the gap to their neighbours.

However, he feels there is currently a huge difference in quality between the two Manchester clubs, and has described United as ‘rank outsiders’ for this weekend’s derby at the Etihad Stadium.

‘Heading into this weekend’s Manchester derby, it is not intended to be disparaging to state this fixture is not currently a heavyweight clash,’ he added.

‘It is in terms of the stature of the clubs involved. United’s history still eclipses City’s. But when assessing the quality of teams, they are in a different class.’

Carragher offered a scathing assessment of United’s tactics earlier this week following their loss at home to Fulham last weekend as he slammed the gap between the midfield and defence, leading to Erik ten Hag hitting back at the former Liverpool for not being ‘objective’ with his analysis.

Carragher feels Erik ten Hag’s side will not be able to go toe-to-toe with City this weekend

He expects the Red Devils to approach Sunday’s clash very differently, as he is adamant that United are not capable of going toe-to-toe with City right now.

Assessing United’s chances, Carragher continued: ‘They can win the game, but only by playing “underdog football” with men sitting deep behind the ball and hoping to counter-attack. 

‘Nine times out 10 that is not good enough against a team of City’s ability. There is always a chance in a one-off game the strategy will work. It will need a shock result.

‘United fans heading to the Etihad with trepidation understand that situation is unacceptable and the team can only truly be said to be heading in the right direction when they are capable of going toe-to-toe with title challengers, imposing front-footed football. They remain miles away from that.’