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When can we realistically expect to challenge/win the league again?

IRELANDUNITED

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Jan 7, 2014
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Now that we have an owner that actually wants the best for the club when do you expect us to challenge for the league again?

Ok, I know, I’m getting ahead of myself, we’ve not been remotely close to winning the league since Sir Alex retired so any talk about winning the league is premature, however that has mostly been down to how awfully the club has been ran.

It’s been rotten from the top down and that has had disastrous effects on the club, but now that Sir Jim has come in and is starting to put the right people in the right place how long do we reckon it will be before we are right back at the top challenging and win the biggest trophies?

Klopp is leaving, Pep can’t cheat his way to success forever, Chelsea are a hot mess and Arsenal and Spurs are Arsenal and Spurs so what’s stopping us from winning a few league titles before the decade is out?

I think next season may come too soon but the season after I fully expect a title charge, and a good long run in the champions league as well.
 

RedStarUnited

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Whenever Pep leaves. Honestly City are too good in every aspect of the game and have a consistency level that is unparalleled.
 

DrRodo

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Im not convinced that ETH can lead the team to a title challenge. I mean, this season has been a very very big step in the wrong direction and he has to prove himself
 

bosnian_red

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Realistically it'll be a few years. We can be a top team, and we'll sooner challenge for the CL than the Prem unless Pep fecks off.

Mainoo is 18, garnacho 19, hojlund just turned 21. Will be 19/20/21 at the end of the season. I'd say by the time Mainoo is 21 or 22 (so garnacho 22 or 23, Hojlund 23 or 24) is when we'll truly be a top side ready to compete for it all. They'll be the core of it, but they're all a few years away from being at the level where we can actually get high 80's in the league.
 

RyRy11

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Jan 1, 2014
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Absolutely no reason why we can't challenge next season. I think a lot of us thought we'd kick on this year but that shouldn't derail our progress.
 

RoyH1

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If the PL finally gets its head out of its arse an sanctions Man City for it's 115 violations, we could already be challenging next season if we have a good window and a top level manager in. Liverpool with no Klopp, FFP finally getting to Boehly and his merry band of soccer disruptors. Arsenal and Spurs are going to be doing their usual thing and the Saudi threat from Newcastle was great overstated.
 

Von Mistelroum

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May 21, 2015
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Honestly I think we can hope, but I don't think we can expect for many years, simply because we've fallen so far behind. Not only in terms of talent, but in terms of structure with other clubs light years ahead in most aspects.

We've also dug ourselves a big hole with our debt, FFP etc., which will take years to undo. The squad full of average, yet super well paid players won't just go away. Many of them will cling on for dear life.

There are positive signs though, and if INEOS bring in the right people, sort out the infrastructure and concentrate on the football side of things like the Glazers never did, then we could be looking to compete for the league maybe within a decade...assuming Pep leaves or City actually have to stop financially doping their club.
 

Gordon Godot

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Feb 19, 2016
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Von Mistelroum said:
Honestly I think we can hope, but I don't think we can expect for many years, simply because we've fallen so far behind. Not only in terms of talent, but in terms of structure with other clubs light years ahead in most aspects.

We've also dug ourselves a big hole with our debt, FFP etc., which will take years to undo. The squad full of average, yet super well paid players won't just go away. Many of them will cling on for dear life.

There are positive signs though, and if INEOS bring in the right people, sort out the infrastructure and concentrate on the football side of things like the Glazers never did, then we could be looking to compete for the league maybe within a decade...assuming Pep leaves or City actually have to stop financially doping their club.
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I would say 2-3 years. We are making the right moves, INEOS appointing experienced people to key roles. But our squad is a mess and ETH's £400m has not really improved us, as well as landed us with a number of mediocre players on big wages that has set us back 2-3 windows to undo. But I expect us to make better signings, promote more youth and play decent football.
 

gajender

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May 7, 2016
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Von Mistelroum said:
Honestly I think we can hope, but I don't think we can expect for many years, simply because we've fallen so far behind. Not only in terms of talent, but in terms of structure with other clubs light years ahead in most aspects.

We've also dug ourselves a big hole with our debt, FFP etc., which will take years to undo. The squad full of average, yet super well paid players won't just go away. Many of them will cling on for dear life.

There are positive signs though, and if INEOS bring in the right people, sort out the infrastructure and concentrate on the football side of things like the Glazers never did, then we could be looking to compete for the league maybe within a decade...assuming Pep leaves or City actually have to stop financially doping their club.
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This is such a negative outlook , in my humble opinion Club of United's stature and resources is always within 3 year of challenging for the title if they get things right and I expect Ineos would be thinking along the same lines .
 

AndySmith1990

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We won't get close to being the best without a serious change in attitude across the club. Too much mediocrity has been tolerated for too long.

It looks like Ineos are starting that process by looking to hire experienced, best in class leadership in key roles.

But even in a best case scenario I think we're 2-3 years off being able build a team capable of beating City to the league. It'd take some seriously good recruitment and ruthlessness in getting rid of a number of current players to reach that point. As well as finding a capable manager, as I don't believe Ten Hag is good enough to win the PL
 

Tiber

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Not seeing it on the horizon anytime soon. Maybe after the next full rebuild? Or the one after that?
 

Von Mistelroum

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gajender said:
This is such a negative outlook , in my humble opinion Club of United's stature and resources is always within 3 year of challenging for the title if they get things right and I expect Ineos would be thinking along the same lines .
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Ok but how though? Our entire infrastructure needs to be changed, methods brought up to date etc.

At the same time, we have a squad full of players who are miles from the required standard, but are on huge contracts which will keep them around. We also can't afford to just go out buying whoever we wish to replace them without selling, and nobody out there is going to be looking at buying the likes of Antony or Rashford on those contracts.

It will surely take years before we can rebuild a squad this way?
 

SambaBoy

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Things change quickly in football. Arsenal went from being 7th/8th to title contenders in one season.

I know obviously they were building for a few years beforehand under the same manager but last season, the predictions were they weren't really in the running for top four, yet finished 2nd and pushed City right to the title. Plus it's could be a perfect storm with Klopp leaving and who knows what will happen with Pep or the potential charges.

Looking at our squad, you'd imagine it will be 2-3 years to really be in a position to push for the title but if the youngsters keep developing and we make some shrewd acquisitions in the transfer market as well as some of the existing 23-28 year olds improving then who knows, it could be a lot sooner than we think.
 

SAF is the GOAT

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Personally, I think it would take us a minimum of 2 transfer windows to just challenge

We have too many personnel to replace that I don't think you can see a real change in the team not just in the quality of football but also in the mentality of the players

This team is too fragile and naïve IMO - you could see so many times this season how we dropped a 2 goal lead and comfortable win to just lose the game.

We need players who want to win, who want to get the ball, who maintain standards in the dressing room, who can push the other players in hard times, and players who can drag others

We had those kinds of players in the past, we need new ones to do that again.
 

Jeffthered

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Oct 7, 2015
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Can't see us doing much within the next two seasons. We still have a huge amount of work to do to build a squad capable of mounting and sustaining a challenge. This requires both players, recruitment team and a manager / coach who are all aligned in how to go about this objective. I'm not sure whether we are there yet.

However, I think other clubs, Citeh, and Liverpool are not improving soooo much.. Citeh have a great amount of young talent (can you believe they sold Cole Palmer???). If they have a manager that can guide them, and retain some experience, with the hunger, they will be difficult to stop. The key variables though are the imminent Financial Fair Play investigation, and whether Pep stays. Klopp leaving will close the gap while they transition.

I'm not worried about Arteta, he's too emotive. Spurs, Villa, Newcastle are our initial target.. we need to keep up with them, not just stringing a few results together, but consistently.
 
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