Predict what United's fate will be in 3 years time

LawCharltonBest

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I'll set a reminder to check this thread and return in 3 years from today (which I'll do if it doesn't get closed, if it gets a decent amount of replies, Redcafe is still active and I am still alive)

The plan within the club is to win the league in 2028, the clubs 150th anniversary. Therefore, they plan to be sitting on top of the Premier League in exactly 3 years time. However, it's very hard to see at the moment with all the news of debt and the club sitting in 15th place as i type.

On the side of hope: Getting Champions League next season is still possible through the Europa League. That could spark a revival if it comes with some positive Stadium news, which will hopefully include plans to tackle the debt and therefore long-term ownership plans not involving the Glazers.

On the not-so-hopeful side: Carrying on down the path we are on, Glazers staying, allowing the debt to carry on untouched, failing to get European football for next season and then I fear United will establish itself as a lower half club for the foreseeable.

Thoughts?
 
I think INEOS are going to fumble the ball and lose an absolute heap of cash on us and pull out after absolutely wrecking the place. They will keep stripping and adding low cost youth thinking this is the way to correct the club and we will be out of Europe for the next few years. Bottom half more than likely. Within 3 years of pain an American or Middle Eastern consortium will buy us and promise the world but we will have become a much bigger job by then as the competition has attracted the next crop of big young players. INEOS are making us like Arsenal at the end of Wengers time there but way more of a laughing stock with all their baseless bluster and austerity. I also don't think the current manager makes it to the summer. If we lose another one or two in the next few league matches (very likely) and we go out of Europe (also likely) he's screwed.

3 years in the wilderness feeling the pain other fans of badly run clubs with naive or just outright terrible owners feel
 
I reckon we'll be 10th in the table. Stabilised. Young. Hard-running. Mediocre.
 
Think we will be a solid mid-table team. Side will look nothing like it does now, but filled with mid-table mediocre players (still).
 
United will get 3 trophies that year, all of them retroactively due to City finally being sentenced and being stripped of their league titles.

Correspondently De Gea, Pogba, Rashford and Martial will now be retroactively considered club's legends.
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
New stadium just started to be built. Around the Europa League spots in the table. Amorim no longer manager.
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"around the Europa League spots in the table" in 3 years would have been considered incredibly negative a few years ago. Now I generally think it's positive. Which is sad

Maybe hope more than anything but I do think we can be title challengers again in 3 years. But it'll take a lot changing in the next 12-18 months. Principally, the Glazers leaving. Or at least reducing their shares to a nub where they don't have a say in anything at the club. Then INEOS (or another) sorting out their financial mess.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
"around the Europa League spots in the table" in 3 years would have been considered incredibly negative a few years ago. Now I generally think it's positive. Which is sad

Maybe hope more than anything but I do think we can be title challengers again in 3 years. But it'll take a lot changing in the next 12-18 months. Principally, the Glazers leaving. Or at least reducing their shares to a nub where they don't have a say in anything at the club. Then INEOS (or another) sorting out their financial mess.
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The Glazers won't leave.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
"around the Europa League spots in the table" in 3 years would have been considered incredibly negative a few years ago. Now I generally think it's positive. Which is sad

Maybe hope more than anything but I do think we can be title challengers again in 3 years. But it'll take a lot changing in the next 12-18 months. Principally, the Glazers leaving. Or at least reducing their shares to a nub where they don't have a say in anything at the club. Then INEOS (or another) sorting out their financial mess.
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Agreed. It could happen. Need some excellent recruitment, and a bit of luck and it’s possible. Clubs can rise as quickly as they fall.
 
Solid mid-table team. We won't even be memeworthy anymore because people will have got used to the idea that Manchester United aren't a big club anymore. Our mediocrity will be a part of the furniture, if it isn't already.
 
Similar to where we are now in league position. After 3 summer windows in a row where we're forced to sell a player of high value because of failing to qualify for Europe, we are now panicking that nobody is worth enough for that to happen again.
 
Said when he came in that I thought Amorim was the last throw of the dice in a sense and it would have to work really well to get us to where we hope to be in 3 years.

Unfortunately, we're not really seeing progress on the pitch a few months in, and the embarassing penny pinching reports we've seen after they've decided to hire/keep on Ashworth and Ten Hag then let them go doesn't instill confidence in the plan.

We'll be lucky to be qualifying for the champions league in three years time in my opinion, unlikely we'll be in the mix for major honours, more likely we'll continue as we are based on the evidence to date.
 
Reckon we might have a different league by then.

Football 'Eritage league breakaway in a couple of years.
 
Cathy Ferguson said:
The Glazers won't leave.
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Maybe but let’s be honest, if they were planning on being majority owners for many more years then we wouldn’t be expanding or potentially building a new stadium.

Additionally it seems weird that INEOS would go through all this over the coming years if they didn’t have designs on properly owning the club

It’s enough for me to retain some hope that the glazers are planning to cash out before the project starts
 
I see us either acquired or about to be acquired by either a state, a state-backed investment fund, or a private investment firm.

INEOS are going to create over the next few years a very healthy balance sheet by cutting the wage bill and continuing to focus on transfers like Dorgu (cheap, young, promising). On the football side, we will probably spend the next couple of years improving, but ultimately being upper mid-table in the PL (6-8). That's good enough with some cup runs to keep revenues at a decent level. If the government follows through on the initial phases for the area around the new stadium, you're now looking at a profitable club, with a big brand name, and with clear plans (and costs) to go to a bigger stadium + generate more revenues.

INEOS and the Glazers will then have two options, take on more debt for the stadium, or cash out. I think they'll pick the latter.
 
We'll get the defence sorted and become the first team in history to complete a season without conceeding or scoring any goals.
 
I've been telling myself this pain is necessary and we have the right appointments for longer term success, so I'll go for top 3
 
Somewhere between 5th and 10th probably. Threat to nobody. No chance in the league but always going deep in the cups.
 
The lack of patience in here is depressing.

Like ok, Amorim hasn’t had the greatest of starts but I would think we all expected that with such a huge switch in systems. But come on, I don’t think we’ll be as bad as we’re making out.

I think in 3 years, Amorim will still be manager, he’ll have the team looking how he wants it to look and we’ll be fighting for the title.
 
Fighting for a Europea league spot. Though a few more fans might have started to figure out that Ratcliffe is just a Press Officer hired to shield the real owners from criticism
 
Siorac said:
Solid mid-table team. We won't even be memeworthy anymore because people will have got used to the idea that Manchester United aren't a big club anymore. Our mediocrity will be a part of the furniture, if it isn't already.
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Pundits will start to ask whether the current, glamorous top team ‘can do it on a cold, wet night in Manchester’
 
Well I downloaded one of those data updates for FM and simmed through a new save for a few years yesterday, and United sacked Amorim in the first year, went into administration in 26/27 (9 point deduction) and their league finishes were something like 16th, 10th, 3rd, 14th twice in the years I had simmed.

So hopefully that's not the path.
 
King Trump and Viceroy of Europe Musk will have taken the reins of the "winningest" club in history and we'll have won the treble treble.

God I hate that word winningest
 
UnitedSofa said:
The lack of patience in here is depressing.

Like ok, Amorim hasn’t had the greatest of starts but I would think we all expected that with such a huge switch in systems. But come on, I don’t think we’ll be as bad as we’re making out.

I think in 3 years, Amorim will still be manager, he’ll have the team looking how he wants it to look and we’ll be fighting for the title.
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I also think he'll still be the manager and will probably have us playing well as soon as next season but playing well and playing consistently great enough to fight for a title are two different things. There's still so much mediocrity in this squad that needs to be completely uprooted before that can happen.
 
Siorac said:
Solid mid-table team. We won't even be memeworthy anymore because people will have got used to the idea that Manchester United aren't a big club anymore. Our mediocrity will be a part of the furniture, if it isn't already.
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This
 
Things can change very quickly with some good signings but most likely we will be a mid table team that if things go well could qualify for the Champions League or win a Cup. Probably at least one more managerial cha when in that time.

I expect the Glazers to still be here in 3 years, the only thing on the horizon is the first refinancing I. 2027 which may force some form of change to the ownership status quo.

We need 2-3 years of more good decisions than bad ones and need to find some really top class players from somewhere. Three years goes pretty quick so we need to see some of those decisions very quickly, or some decisions that have already been made start paying off.
 
UnitedSofa said:
The lack of patience in here is depressing.

Like ok, Amorim hasn’t had the greatest of starts but I would think we all expected that with such a huge switch in systems. But come on, I don’t think we’ll be as bad as we’re making out.

I think in 3 years, Amorim will still be manager, he’ll have the team looking how he wants it to look and we’ll be fighting for the title.
Click to expand...

You’re right it’s very depressing in this thread and I would have followed the same path but reading yours sounds a lot better and not totally unrealistic either (hopefully!)

Separately I think there will be a shift in how the league and club transfers operate, PSR in its current form doesn’t make sense to me. I think we’ll see more youth being promoted across lots of teams due to those changes.
 
I don't anticipate a dramatic improvement. Each time it has felt as though we're at our lowest ebb in the last 3-4 years, we have somehow conspired to find new lows.

I'd like to think we can't drop much/any further than where we are now but I don't know if there is a quick enough fix to even stabilise us to being a top half side next season. There's not enough money for the scale of rebuild we need and it looks like we might be entering a period of austerity with INEOS cost cutting. If we really do have to sell to buy as Amorim has suggested, it could paint a pretty bleak picture for next season.
 
2026 - Top 10 and a cup win: Amorim starting to get the team to play better
2027 - Top 4 and a cup win; Starting to look like a top team again
2028 - Top 2 and cup win; Title charge!
 
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