Manuel Pellegrini is adamant that Manchester City have the infrastructure in place to reach Barcelona's footing in European football within the next five years.
There appears to be a gulf between both sides as the Spanish giants close in on a second treble since 2009, at the same time as City lick their wounds after a trophiless season.
Furthermore, Pellegrini's charges were ousted from the Champions League by the Catalans in each of the last two seasons, with Barca thumping Bayern Munich 3-0 this week to put one foot in the final.
However, the Chilean says that the Citizens have taken tremendous strides in a relatively short space of time, and believes that their long-term "project" will come to fruition sooner rather than later.
"The project at this club is to improve every year," he told Sky Sports News. "To grow every year as a club, in all senses, in every department, young players, first team.
"It's not easy to compare, not the whole history, but this club in the last seven years has had the amount of money you need to compete with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern, Manchester United - the most important teams of the world that can spend more money and have the best players.
"Maybe a lot of people are nervous, because you don't do it in three, four, five years. All these projects need a long time and every year you must demonstrate that you are growing and improving. This season we are really seeing again the Barcelona we saw a few years ago. But there is a lot of things we can try to reduce the distance between our team and them. I am sure we are going to do it sooner than five years."
City sit 13 points behind newly-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea in what has proven a disappointing defence of their title.
Shane Callaghan
