Are you confident of success in the INEOS era?

[LawCharltonBest]

Paul Merson says United won't win the league in the next 5 years and if they do then the manager who does it should be Knighted

Whereas Sir Jim says he thinks it'll be 2 or 3 years before we start looking like the United of old. He certainly has the pockets to make that happen if he wants to.

Even trying to look at it neutrally (let's say INEOS took over Spurs and targeted Berrada & Ashworth etc) I would think a title in the next 5 years - particularly when Klopp and Guardiola are gone - is doable.

Your take?

 

[IrishRedDevil]

It can't get any worse.

 

[The Cat]

Paul Merson knows jack shit about anything is my take.

 

[big_jeffstar]

There’s too many variables to be sure really, on the face of it, everything seems a lot more positive, and it can’t be any worse really, but then you hear things like “INEOS are big fans of Gareth Southgate” and it just makes my heart sink a bit.
it all depends on the people they bring in and how well they do their jobs, on the face of it Berrada and Dan Ashworth are great appointments, but they could still make bad decisions.

 

[TheReligion]

Who cares what Merson says?!

 

[soapythecat]

Merson might be back on the gear, but he does have a point. Given FFP now, the amount of players we would need to replace/buy to get even close to the top 3 is ridiculous. Will take 5 years with other clubs remaining stagnant.
I don't see how the INEOS model can do any worse given the moves they are making. We just need a good manager and then we can start to improve and see how we get on.

 

[AndySmith1990]

I'm confident Ratcliffe means what he says. Whether that translates into the success we want, who knows. It's obviously not going to be easy. But I'm confident we'll be significantly better over the course of the next decade than we were during the past decade

 

[Ali Dia]

Paul Merson knows jack shit about anything is my take.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. He just spouts endless BS and gets the odd one right. He totally hates Utd too.

In reality though we have a big job to clear out the cynical and lacklustre culture fostered under the Glazers. We can’t do it in a year or else we will waste another billion and do a Chelsea and have FFP issues.

 

[GMoore23]

Merson is a halfwit so pay no notice to him.

 

[OL29]

No but that's a reflection on how we've performed as a club post-Fergie rather than INEOS themselves. It's impossible to be optimistic given our downfall.

 

[Redstain]

I've confidence in the new members in the hierarchy, alongside their ambition to win but I think it's very clear that the current manager has a ceiling and I can't see United winning the league with Erik at the helm under any circumstances.

 

[sparx99]

Paul Merson says United won't win the league in the next 5 years and if they do then the manager who does it should be Knighted

Whereas Sir Jim says he thinks it'll be 2 or 3 years before we start looking like the United of old. He certainly has the pockets to make that happen if he wants to.

Even trying to look at it neutrally (let's say INEOS took over Spurs and targeted Berrada & Ashworth etc) I would think a title in the next 5 years - particularly when Klopp and Guardiola are gone - is doable.

Your take?

Leicester finished 17th then won the league. Chelsea finished 10th then won the league. Man City were taken over in 2008 and won their first title in 2011. Chelsea were taken over in 2003 and won the title the first year in 2004.

Anything is possible in football.

 

[sparx99]

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. He just spouts endless BS and gets the odd one right. He totally hates Utd too.

In reality though we have a big job to clear out the cynical and lacklustre culture fostered under the Glazers. We can’t do it in a year or else we will waste another billion and do a Chelsea and have FFP issues.

He really does hate Utd. I don’t know how he’s allowed to get away with such since lazy bias all the time.

However, Arteta came to Arsenal in 2019 with a lot of similar issues to Utd and frankly a much worse average position in the league over the previous few years. I’d say they were in a title race last year and again this year. So that was year 4 & year 5 of their ‘project’.

I would argue they didn’t do anything that radical either. Moving on the likes of Auba and Ozil would be akin to letting Casemiro, Bruno, Varane leave as you don’t expect them to be part of a future title winning team. Investing in some young players like Saka, Odegaard, White is akin to Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund.

Things change very quickly in football.

 

[crossy1686]

We'll win the league before Arsenal. Quote me

 

[Siorac]

No, I'm not. I expect the next decade to be roughly the same as the last one.

I maintain that the only way we'll win the Premier League again is if at one point a Super League is formed and we're not invited for some godforsaken reason. In the absence of the other top clubs, we'd have a chance. In the current competition structure we won't get back to the top.

 

[K Stand Knut]

I would concur that Merson knows feck all about most things but not sure I can criticise him on this occasion.

We have absolutely no evidence to back up anything else and the past 15+ years have been diabolical.

Admittedly, on paper, things appears to be on the positive side but we don’t know the ins and outs of exactly how things are going to be run from now and personally, I think it’s going to take at least 2 years to rid the first team squad of the plague that has been beset for the past 5+ years.

whilst it’s nice to look positively, I would not be surprised to see us go another decade without a title. However, nor would it surprise me if we won a title in half that time

 

[Zen86]

Paul Merson

 

[RORY65]

Merson's obviously an idiot but it's very likely that we won't win the league in the next 5 years, it's really fecking hard to win. Klopp has clearly done an incredible job at Liverpool and he's won 1 league title, it may get easier if Guardiola leaves but it would still be reliant on us getting our shit together (which is not guaranteed by any means) and some of the teams who are ahead of us (Arsenal being one who are much better and younger) not kicking on. I do expect that we will become more competent and stable under INEOS but it still might not lead to that level of success, if we could somewhat compete for one in the next 5 years then that would be nice because we haven't done that post Ferguson.

 

[McGrathsipan]

We'll win the league before Arsenal. Quote me

Kind of hoping they win it in May

 

[Offside]

Merson's obviously an idiot but it's very likely that we won't win the league in the next 5 years, it's really fecking hard to win. Klopp has clearly done an incredible job at Liverpool and he's won 1 league title, it may get easier if Guardiola leaves but it would still be reliant on us getting our shit together (which is not guaranteed by any means) and some of the teams who are ahead of us (Arsenal being one who are much better and younger) not kicking on. I do expect that we will become more competent and stable under INEOS but it still might not lead to that level of success, if we could somewhat compete for one in the next 5 years then that would be nice because we haven't done that post Ferguson.

Too hard to predict. Things go round in circles and change overnight. In 5 years we could be toasting 3 titles in a row, that would still leave us with 2 more seasons of shit. Or we could be 20 years away from even challenging again. It’s very easy to predict the latter when we’re completely shite right now.

To answer the OP, I’m confident of success at some point as they’ll be our owners for years. In the short term though I think they will be a lot of change and it will take time for it to be realised on the pitch. It wouldn’t surprise me though if the recruitment drastically gets better straight away, as it can’t get any worse.

United still have pull and lots of young talent so the upward trajectory could be very rapid. Merson’s comments are stupid.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Am I confident we’ll win a title in the next 5 years? No, the top of the PL is as competitive as it’s ever been and the league is the deepest in the world. Am I confident we’ll be actually competing at the level of the top 3 though? Yeah I am.

The hires they are making make too much sense, and it seems like there will be far too many smart decision makers for us to be worse.

 

[Reddevildans]

Nobody can predict anything. Merson is paid to spout these click baiting stories and comes out with flashy statements constantly. Ofcourse he is right in saying we're a million miles away. We certainly don't have the players or manager who can win the title.

However, things can change instantly or gradually over a short period of time. Nobody expected klopp to leave, nobody knows what will happen to city and subsequently pep and nobody knows what INEOS have planned for us. We could purge the squad of nasties this summer and completely revamp the mood and quality of squad next season. Having football people in charge of recruitment could drastically change our fortunes.

This season is now a write off. I'm counting down the games because I've seen enough from these players and manager. It's been horrendous. I'm more intrigued what INEOS have planned upstairs and with the manager. If we get that right, success and a coherent playing style should follow naturally.

 

[V.O.]

Paul Merson says a lot of things.

 

[DrRodo]

Im already used to be supporting a top 10 club which sometimes can make it to europe so as long as we dont fall any further, anything is fine by me

 

[RedDevil@84]

Its Paul Merson ffs.

 

[Chairman Steve]

Time will tell I guess. Unlike the Glazers, they seem to be taking this seriously looking at the people they’re looking to bring in so far like Berrada, Ashworth, Wilcox and a Head of Recruitment.

Never seen that much change at senior official at the club. I imagine fans of other similarly statured clubs shrug their shoulders at us getting excited at that type of thing, but that’s just how bad we’ve been run. It’s been some fecking accountant friend of the Glazers and some head coach being squeezed into a SAF type shaped hole that nobody in world football will ever fill, running things as a duo. It’s ridiculous. There’s Championship clubs who’ve got better structure than what we had.

I think a good indication of how successful they could be is when they make their first real mistake (and they will… everyone does) is how they react to it. Ideally we need some proactivity and decisive action to rectify that mistake. We can laugh at Abramovich sacking people like there was no tomorrow at Chelsea but they somehow kept winning things, despite it not making sense from what other people say.

Funnily enough this senior official drive going on at the moment is similar to how Chelsea did it 20 years ago as they poached Frank Arnesen from Spurs to be their Sporting Director (barely a year he’d be there.. sound familar?) and Peter Kenyon from us to be their CEO.

 

[Joseunited]

Lock this thread due to the fact that the name Paul Merson is in it.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Merson is full of hyperbole.

 

[Redplane]

Im already used to be supporting a top 10 club which sometimes can make it to europe so as long as we dont fall any further, anything is fine by me

This is the way. Set the bar low. Pray we pull a Leicester one of these days and miraculously win a title.

 

[CallyRed]

My cousin caught Merse doing a line on a pub toilet back in the day.

 

[Jev]

You’d be a fool to feel confident of success considering all the challenges facing the club. I think we have much better odds than we did before INEOS came in.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Paul Merson says United won't win the league in the next 5 years and if they do then the manager who does it should be Knighted

Whereas Sir Jim says he thinks it'll be 2 or 3 years before we start looking like the United of old. He certainly has the pockets to make that happen if he wants to.

Even trying to look at it neutrally (let's say INEOS took over Spurs and targeted Berrada & Ashworth etc) I would think a title in the next 5 years - particularly when Klopp and Guardiola are gone - is doable.

Your take?

No one can ever see these turn arounds coming. In August 2022, how many thought Arsenal who had finished 8th 2 seasons running will be title contenders for the next two seasons?

The moment Pep goes, the title is open for everyone to win it again. And I dont see why we wouldn't be in that mix.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

Paul Merson says

Yea, there was your problem.

 

[RedBanker]

We can if we get the next managerial appointment right. If we get another dud it's game over for us.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

We can if we get the next managerial appointment right. If we get another dud it's game over for us.

I don't think so. If we get the structure right then the manager is just another easily replaceable cog in a bigger machine. Based on what we've heard from SJR so far, gone are the days of the "dictator manager".

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Yea, there was your problem.

What problem? What Merson says and my question to the board aren’t intertwined

 

[Cloud7]

I would say that I’m more confident of us being closer to where we should be under INEOS than if the glazers continued running the show

 

[Mike Smalling]

If we make some structural adjustment to the leadership of the club, have a good transfer window, and see some improvements to the play as a result of those transfers, I could begin to be cautiously optimistic.

Until then, it’s all just talk.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Yes, as soon as they jettison ten Hag.

 

[Pughnichi]

I’ll tell you the answer after we know what they’ll do with Rashford and Bruno in the summer