Despite once ruling football, the past decade has seen Manchester United far from an elite level but Ineos have aspirations of returning the good times.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is on a mission to return his beloved Manchester United to the pinnacle of football – a place the Red Devils had called home under Sir Alex Ferguson.
United have gone 12 years without winning the Premier League – a trophy United have won 13 times – and have also gone 16 years without winning the Champions League.
By the lofty standards established at the club by United’s most successful manager Sir Alex, this is simply unacceptable and the wait for a return to these standards will go on.
However, now United CEO Omar Berrada has named when fans can expect the club to challenge for these elite trophies.
Omar Berrada sets four-year challenge for Manchester United
Since the arrival of Ineos at the club, things have been slowly becoming elite behind the scenes.
This saw the arrival of Berrada as CEO, Dan Ashworth as sporting director and Jason Wilcox as technical director.
While this happened however performances on the pitch have thus far not matched the vision off the pitch.
However, Berrada has now been quoted by The Athletic as stating that winning titles this season is not expected.
“It’s not a 10-year plan. The fans would run out of patience if it was a 10-year plan. But it’s certainly a three-year plan to get there,” he said.
“To think that we’re going to be playing football as good as Manchester City played against Real Madrid last season by next year is not sensible. And if we give people false expectations, then they will get disappointed. So the key thing is our trajectory so that people can see that we’re making progress.
“I think it’s the club’s 150-year anniversary in 2028… if our trajectory is leading to a very good place in that sort of timeframe then we’d be very happy with that. Because it’s not easy to turn Manchester United into the world’s best football team.
“The ultimate target for Manchester United — and it’s always going to be thus, really — is that we should be challenging for the Premier League and challenging for the Champions League. It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world.”
Throughout the club’s history, there have been some magical moments and trophy wins that live long in the minds of United fans, however having to wait four more years for another league or Champions League trophy will be a frustrating wait.
Can Erik ten Hag still be Manchester United manager in 2028
With the club not expecting to challenge for the league until 2028, Ten Hag may have been dealt an unwinnable hand – if his performances don’t improve soon, fans are likely to get restless.
With two trophy wins in two seasons as United boss, Ten Hag will have to hope his 100% silverware rate continues if he is to draw himself time to get the team into a position where fans can once more be proud of the team.
So with this in mind, if Ten Hag wants to be part of the next golden era of this football club, he has a lot of work to do.
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
