Omar Berrada: Manchester United aiming to win the title by 2028

We'll see how this season goes, but I doubt Ineos want to throw it away.

I don't want to say it has to be a gradual improvement every season in terms of league positions, as it doesn't strictly have to be, in order to win the league or become a real challenger by 2028. We've seen it with both Liverpool and Arsenal that whilst their league position didn't improve, they still vastly improved as a team over 2 seasons.

So I'm putting this and next season (2024/25 & 2025/26) down as just "need to progress and improve", rather than set top 4, top 3, etc. as goals you strictly have to achieve. If we don't progess with ten Hag, I'm pretty sure he will be sacked, hence me saying I don't think Ineos will want to write the season off, especially so early on.

If we can improve in both of the next two seasons on the pitch, then a title challenge is definitely possible as soon as the 2026/27 season IMO. And from there on, whether we win it or not will heavily depend on the other contenders. If City and Pep are both somehow still in the Premier League, and nothing has happened to them, we can be one of the best teams in the world, and still come up short several times, like both Arsenal and Liverpool have done against them. So, in such a scenario, not winning the league, but coming close and ending up on 85+ points shouldn't be considered a catastrophic failure, both internally and among fans. However, I don't think that's going to be the case. I think it will be Arteta's Arsenal as the team to beat if someone wants to win the title. Us, Liverpool, Spurs, and every other top 4 contender has work to do in order to become a title challenger by 2026/27.
 
Ambitions too low. I want it next year. CL-PL double in 2028 is more what we should aim for.
 
Yakuza_devils said:
It's all well and good to have high ambition and all that. Meanwhile, they are keeping a manager who don't even have a style of play in his 3rd season.

We need solid action in reality to work towards the target. As of now, we can't see that at all. The serious works need to start now.
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Serious question, how can you not see the obvious style of play? It’s clear as day.

It seems like a more valid time line especially with the purchases we’ve been making. We have a lot of young players that in 3 years you would expect to be ready to mount a challenge and by then we’ll hopefully have constructed a midfield that can execute the tactical demands.

It’ll be hard but not impossible. Certainly should be challenging by then at least.
 
Ichabod Ferguson said:
Yep, it’s just setting some vague, distant target which sounds remotely ambitious, but which will be quickly explained away. We’ve already had this with the club saying that they were setting themselves up to be the best team in the country when Klopp and Pep finished. Surprise, surprise Klopp’s gone and we’re still shit.

You can basically write the rowing back excuse article now

'Whilst the club had initially expressed its ambition to win the title in 2028, there is now an acceptance that this target was optimistic. The upper management of the club now recognise that keeping ten Hag was a mistake and that a number of the players signed under him ultimately proved not to be at the required level. As such, the upper management now accept that Manchester United are in a period of transition and hope to be in a position to challenge for the league by 2030’
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It’s like you’ve made up your mind, eh? Who knew that absolute pessimism is needed to win titles. United shouldn’t set targets because they are incapable of meeting them.

Equally the Article could say:

“INEOS appointed CEO, Omar, realised early on in his tenure that he needs to take control of the malaise at the club and establish clear targets, which were challenging but achievable. This put in place a culture of accountability right through the management team and the coaching staff. After 3 years into his reign, United are now a very different proposition and for the first time since SAF retired, they are being considered as serious title contenders.”

You realise it doesn’t need to be ETH in or out. The target is clear and set out. It’s win in 2028 at all cost, and if you win before it’s a bonus. I’m sure he’s not telling ETH that you have 3 more seasons before you win the title.

Also, its completely sensible to view this as:

1. Let’s give Ten Hag till Christmas and see if results and football improves. It’s also the bare minimum time that the new signings need to bed into the squad.

2. Based on those results, decide if ETH needs to go in Xmas, over the summer or his contract needs to be extended.

3. If he is fired, we start a proper 3 year cycle with a new manager by 2028.

4. If he stays, then assess the full season in the summer. If we don’t make top 4 / champions league; He goes. If we are there, we have another summer of progression with coherent squad development in the long term United ‘game model’.

5. Title challenge would be a bare minimum if he stays in 25/26. if we are anything short of that get rid mid season. Then you have 2.5 years to win from there with a coherent squad structure and management approach.

There are so many permutations here but that’s how a proper decision flow should work if you set yourself an ambitious but achievable target. If Berrada thinks like a fan and thinks title this season; then ETH should go right away and we have to test out the next flavour of the season to sort United out. Isn’t that exactly how we got here because Woodwood had no clue how to set targets and work towards them?
 
Andersons Dietician said:
Serious question, how can you not see the obvious style of play? It’s clear as day.

It seems like a more valid time line especially with the purchases we’ve been making. We have a lot of young players that in 3 years you would expect to be ready to mount a challenge and by then we’ll hopefully have constructed a midfield that can execute the tactical demands.

It’ll be hard but not impossible. Certainly should be challenging by then at least.
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The aim is to win it by 2028 and not challenge by 2028. We are miles off.

The clear style of play you are talking about is making us sat highly in the league at 11th. The so called style of play also make half the fan base fell asleep during the game.

After more than 600M and 3rd year, this style of play is not acceptable at all. Period.
 
It bothers me that the thread title means something completely different to what Berrada actually said.

Anyway, winning the title for the 150th anniversary is a solid aspiration to have. It will be difficult; unlikely, even. But better to aim for the stars and land on the moon than wallow in the gutter, as so many seem so keen to do.
 
Shiva87 said:
It’s like you’ve made up your mind, eh? Who knew that absolute pessimism is needed to win titles. United shouldn’t set targets because they are incapable of meeting them.

Equally the Article could say:

“INEOS appointed CEO, Omar, realised early on in his tenure that he needs to take control of the malaise at the club and establish clear targets, which were challenging but achievable. This put in place a culture of accountability right through the management team and the coaching staff. After 3 years into his reign, United are now a very different proposition and for the first time since SAF retired, they are being considered as serious title contenders.”

You realise it doesn’t need to be ETH in or out. The target is clear and set out. It’s win in 2028 at all cost, and if you win before it’s a bonus. I’m sure he’s not telling ETH that you have 3 more seasons before you win the title.

Also, its completely sensible to view this as:

1. Let’s give Ten Hag till Christmas and see if results and football improves. It’s also the bare minimum time that the new signings need to bed into the squad.

2. Based on those results, decide if ETH needs to go in Xmas, over the summer or his contract needs to be extended.

3. If he is fired, we start a proper 3 year cycle with a new manager by 2028.

4. If he stays, then assess the full season in the summer. If we don’t make top 4 / champions league; He goes. If we are there, we have another summer of progression with coherent squad development in the long term United ‘game model’.

5. Title challenge would be a bare minimum if he stays in 25/26. if we are anything short of that get rid mid season. Then you have 2.5 years to win from there with a coherent squad structure and management approach.

There are so many permutations here but that’s how a proper decision flow should work if you set yourself an ambitious but achievable target. If Berrada thinks like a fan and thinks title this season; then ETH should go right away and we have to test out the next flavour of the season to sort United out. Isn’t that exactly how we got here because Woodwood had no clue how to set targets and work towards them?
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Or, you do the right thing in the summer and sack a manager that deserves it and plan from there. All of these hypothetical plans are just delaying the inevitable.

We've heard a lot from CEOs over the years talking about how this time it's different and we're really, definitely this time back we promise.

We need to simply see it in action, and so far, whilst there have been some positives, INEOS bottled the biggest decision they had to make. I hope for all our sakes they learn from that and come to their senses quickly so we can start actually pulling ourselves up.
 
Adisa said:
In 2028, it will be 15 years without the title. I never thought it would take this long.
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Would it be crazy to say that some may have? I mean SAF was larger than life, I personally dreaded that we could see another multi-decade drought. This feeling was reinforced with the choice of David Moyes to be honest. At the time you of course back the manager and hope for the best but deep down it never felt like there was a person out there who could step into the void left by SAF and keep the train on the tracks. I personally was naive at the time and didn't understand how important chief executives were but it would have been predictable had I known at the time how much of their job SAF was also doing.
 
Yakuza_devils said:
The aim is to win it by 2028 and not challenge by 2028. We are miles off.

The clear style of play you are talking about is making us sat highly in the league at 11th. The so called style of play also make half the fan base fell asleep during the game.

After more than 600M and 3rd year, this style of play is not acceptable at all. Period.
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So you can see a style of play but were just speaking rubbish in the earlier post. You’re also saying the style of play is boring? Or do you mean we aren’t scoring 5 or 6 goals every game so that is boring for you? Because so far the style is developing in to what everyone has been asking for and getting similar to some of the most exciting teams of recent times.

I also don’t understand how people don’t get that recruitment has been an issue and that isn’t all ETH’s fault. If you go shopping and your desperate for an Avacado but they only have foosty old brown ones that aren’t fit for purpose yet you’re told that’s all you can get what are you supposed to do. That’s been our recruitment policy. Now we are making long term signings so they peak together at a certain point. An age structure in the team that should allow for easier transitions.
 
Ichabod Ferguson said:
Or, you do the right thing in the summer and sack a manager that deserves it and plan from there. All of these hypothetical plans are just delaying the inevitable.

We've heard a lot from CEOs over the years talking about how this time it's different and we're really, definitely this time back we promise.

We need to simply see it in action, and so far, whilst there have been some positives, INEOS bottled the biggest decision they had to make. I hope for all our sakes they learn from that and come to their senses quickly so we can start actually pulling ourselves up.
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I don't think that's fair. They didn't bottle it in my opinion, and they took the best decision in the circumstances. It's important for the footballing structure to be in place before decisions on the manager are made. 6 months delay in the worst case is nothing if you are making a 10-15 year investment. For all we know, this is a legacy project for INEOS, and they are taking everything step by step. Firing a manager who just won an FA Cup (despite poor league form) isn't a bottle-job. It will be a bottle-job if ETH's results don't improve and we continue to stick with him in the new year and beyond.

Although, if you are watching the games, there is clearly a better structure around the team and football has been watchable. At times last season, we were just disheartening to watch, and it was insane how easy we were to play against. Results must improve.
 
It is good to be ambitious and I applaud that.
But we have to be realistic.
First stop the slide.
I do believe the structure is much improved.

However, I still have to question whether the manager is capable of matching that ambition.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
To be honest, it depends on Man City's charges, United finished 2nd behind them twice, once under Jose, once under Ole and neither were 'great' sides but you take City out of it and United hit a good run of form and you never know. The other teams can be inconsistent.
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Crazy to actually think if city didn’t cheat their way to the top.. we’d of won the league twice during this era.
 
It’ll be 15 years by then. When I was a kid I used to hear about how Liverpool hadn’t won the league for 20, 25, 30 years and think it was a lifetime. But now we’re going through it, and the RVP season feels like yesterday, it isn’t that weird.
 
Judas said:
I mean that is a ridiculous opinion, there’s no real logical reason beyond negativity to think it could take that long, especially with the clear intent being shown by the new structure.
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It’s only three seasons away and don’t forget us fans of United are almost 100% in agreement of wanting a new manager/coach so that doesn’t give the new chap long at all.
It’s not negative talk it’s being realistic and in all honesty the way we are now I also think a tad ambitious.
Time will tell.
 
There's absolutely no chance of of us winning the league by 2028. That's a ridiculous pipe dream.

I mean, sure, let the CEO talk big and bullish but the reality is that we are light years away.
 
Siorac said:
There's absolutely no chance of of us winning the league by 2028. That's a ridiculous pipe dream.

I mean, sure, let the CEO talk big and bullish but the reality is that we are light years away.
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I think we are a gk, two lbs, 2-3 cms and striker away to have a team that can compete. Add to that a manager who is capable of winning the EPL. So we are talking about 2-3 windows and a jack-pot of managerial appointment. I agree not possible.
 
didz said:
It bothers me that the thread title means something completely different to what Berrada actually said.

Anyway, winning the title for the 150th anniversary is a solid aspiration to have. It will be difficult; unlikely, even. But better to aim for the stars and land on the moon than wallow in the gutter, as so many seem so keen to do.
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The thread title is in line with both the article and what Berrada obviously meant given the context of his comments.
 
Sunny Jim said:
I think we are a gk, two lbs, 2-3 cms and striker away to have a team that can compete. Add to that a manager who is capable of winning the EPL. So we are talking about 2-3 windows and a jack-pot of managerial appointment. I agree not possible.
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2-3 perfect windows. If a couple of signings don't work out - and our track record is much worse than that - then it's longer.
 
Siorac said:
There's absolutely no chance of of us winning the league by 2028. That's a ridiculous pipe dream.

I mean, sure, let the CEO talk big and bullish but the reality is that we are light years away.
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Looking at Liverpool from when Klopp took over, the equivalent point in their timeline would have been the year they finished a single point behind City.

So you're effectively talking about a slightly better recovery than Liverpool managed from there. Except we are a wealthier club, and there's the possibility that City are hit with heavy punishments over that time period. So saying there's no chance is a bit much.

It's definitely a very optimistic timeframe though, as the key difference with the Liverpool comparison is that their new football structure & owners didn't arrive the summer before Klopp. And, obviously, our manager isn't Jurgen Klopp. So us rebuilding in a similar timeframe leaves little room for missteps.
 
sullydnl said:
The thread title is in line with both the article and what Berrada obviously meant given the context of his comments.
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It's just quoting the title of the article. In reality Berrada actually doesn't appear to have said either.

He wasn't that explicit, because he's not stupid. Take a look at the direct quotes.

He spoke about a 3 yr plan, that to expect to play like Real/City this season was unrealistic and that the team should be challenging for PL/CL titles. He spoke about the anniversary and said that if the club's trajectory was leading to a good place in that sort of time frame they'd be happy.

Nowhere that I can see did he explicitly say we'd win the league in or by 2028.
 
Withnail said:
It's just quoting the title of the article. In reality Berrada actually doesn't appear to have said either.

He wasn't that explicit, because he's not stupid. Take a look at the direct quotes.

He spoke about a 3 yr plan, that to expect to play like Real/City this season was unrealistic and that the team should be challenging for PL/CL titles. He spoke about the anniversary and said that if the club's trajectory was leading to a good place in that sort of time frame they'd be happy.

Nowhere that I can see did he explicitly say we'd win the league in or by 2028.
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The article provides a summation of what he said to staff. One aspect of which was informing them of "Project 150", the defined plan to win the title in (but really by) the year 2028. So-named because 2028 is the 150 year anniversary of the club being formed.

There are no direct quotes from Berrada in the article, let alone ones that contradict the idea/existence of that "Project 150" aim. Are you seeing direct quotes somewhere else that do?
 
sullydnl said:
The article provides a summation of what he said to staff. One aspect of which was informing them of "Project 150", the defined plan to win the title in (but really by) the year 2028. So-named because 2028 is the 150 year anniversary of the club being formed.

There are no direct quotes from Berrada in the article, let alone ones that contradict the idea/existence of that "Project 150" aim. Are you seeing direct quotes somewhere else that do?
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Well there'll all over the Internet but the tweet you posted has a link to a New York Times article which has quotes from Berrada.
 
Withnail said:
Well there'll all over the Internet but the tweet you posted has a link to a New York Times article which has quotes from Berrada.
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No it doesn't, aside from a repeat of the quotes about ETH from before the Liverpool game. It just has a summation of what Berrada said to staff, no quotes.

The quotes in the article referring to a 3 year plan, Real/City, etc. are from Ratcliffe, and were made 6 months ago.
 
sullydnl said:
No it doesn't, aside from a repeat of the quotes about ETH from before the Liverpool game. It just has a summation of what Berrada said to staff, no quotes.

The quotes in the article referring to a 3 year plan, Real/City, etc. are from Ratcliffe, and were made 6 months ago.
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Oops I missed that part, sorry. I was only awake reading that.

Fair enough. No idea why people are getting so het up about 'in' or 'by' in that case. As all we're going off is second hand information.

Besides it amounts to the same thing as you'd obviously take it earlier if you could get it. A lot of things would have to fall into place for that to happen but happy they've got a defined short term goal for success in that case.
 
sullydnl said:
Looking at Liverpool from when Klopp took over, the equivalent point in their timeline would have been the year they finished a single point behind City.

So you're effectively talking about a slightly better recovery than Liverpool managed from there. Except we are a wealthier club, and there's the possibility that City are hit with heavy punishments over that time period. So saying there's no chance is a bit much.

It's definitely a very optimistic timeframe though, as the key difference with the Liverpool comparison is that their new football structure & owners didn't arrive the summer before Klopp. And, obviously, our manager isn't Jurgen Klopp. So us rebuilding in a similar timeframe leaves little room for missteps.
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I think our problems as a club run much deeper than Liverpool's did. Saying there's no chance might be an exaggeration - after all, Leicester City managed to win a title. But it's incredibly unlikely because there is a culture of rot, of defeat, of mediocrity. And that's hard to change.

And our financial might is not what it once was, after a decade of disastrous spending.
 
We need to make this a reality. There is no way we should have to go any more than 3 years without at least making an actual challenge for the title. I’m glad that INEOS are being ambitious and not settling for mediocrity unlike the Glazers. They did keep ten Hag as manager, I know I know.
 
thisisnottaken1 said:
We need to make this a reality. There is no way we should have to go any more than 3 years without at least making an actual challenge for the title. I’m glad that INEOS are being ambitious and not settling for mediocrity unlike the Glazers. They did keep ten Hag as manager, I know I know.
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They kept him only by default though. I’d have been worried if they handed him a brand new contract a day after the FA Cup win and we’re seeing what’s playing out now. It took them almost a whole month before deciding to activate the one year extension on his existing contract. Hardly the most ringing endorsement and that’s not even including all the stuff that happened in the buildup to the FA Cup Final.

ETH is just a placeholder as they decide who they actually want in. He’s pretty much the last football-related figure in power from the Glazer regime.
 
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