No 21 done and done.
Well, if you listen to the words of Man Utd CEO Omar Berrada.
United's chief executive feels very strongly that the club will lift the league title come 2028 as said in a statement he conducted with The Athletic.
He spoke about quite a few things including transfer business, belief in Ruben Amorim, Matheus Cunha potential modern-day Cantona and more.
But it really was his statement regarding winning the league in just three years that caught the attention.
"We just finished 15th and it seems impossible, but why not aim for that? I firmly believe we can achieve it. We have two or three summer transfer windows to build a team that is starting to be competitive to win the Premier League."
This isn't the first time Berrada, who was appointed as CEO not long after Sir Jim Ratcliffe took hold of 27.7% of the club and football operations, has said this regarding United winning the league in 2028.
'Project 150' was something discussed in an interview not so long ago in which the CEO said that with 2028 being the year of United's 150th anniversary of the club's inception, it would be a great time to lift the Premier League on such a monumentous occasion.
There was also 'Misson 21' (to win the 21st League title) and 'Misson 1" to win the first Women's Super League title. These projects are all led by Berrada and is part of his three-year plan to get United back to the top of football.
Final Thoughts
2028? Why not 2027? Why not next season? With how Berrada is thinking, what's stopping the Premier League from putting our name on next season's title already?
Nice Omar, open with a joke 👏.
Some would say he is a joke when saying something so absurd.
I'm sure you can get my sarcasm but to think that the aim is to win the league in three years is cray-cray 🤪.
Berrada talks about having two or three windows but will that be enough? Will it be enough to get in the right players and remove the wrong ones? Hell, will Ruben Amorim still be the manager in three years? You know managers don't last that long these days.
He must have been smoking some good shit when he said this. He surely can't 'firmly believe' that we will get things so right that in three years we'll overcome the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, City, Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs, Brentford, Villa and many more. We still have to make it into the top half 💀!
We're moving so slow in this window that we probably won't get done what we need to get done and while that is a lot, signing just Matheus Cunha at this point is simply not good enough. United have obviously been heavily linked with Bryan Mbeumo and that still looks to be good but the longer this deal drags out and Thomas Frank gets settled in at Spurs, anything is possible.
United are big at cocking up, if you didn't know.
It seems that Viktor Gyokeres isn't going to be coming to the club which all but rules out one top striker. News also suggests that Rasmus Hojlund wants to stay and fight for his place in the side. That won't be music to many people's ears because well, Hojlund sucks and Gyokeres is elite. One thing we're seriously missing is an elite striker.
It's still possible to sign the likes of Victor Osimhem albeit with difficulty due to wage demands and financial issues, Hugo Ekitike is hot at the moment but €100m?! Waaaaayyyyy too much money for another up-and-coming striker.
United have also not moved players on such as Antony, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Andre Onana (another player who is reported to be staying at the club), Luke Shaw and so many others.
We don't only have to do incomings as the outgoings are just as important if not more so as it helps to bring in funds for new players.
I know that we're still early on in the window and it just re-opened after closing for a week due to the Crap World Cup I mean Club World Cup 😅 and yet we still haven't seen any significant business being done. And time moves pretty fast as we know.
That Mbeumo news about him wanting to join United was said by David Ornstein two weeks ago. That's pretty much all we've had other than some talk about Spurs potentially being in for him but he still wants to join United.
As the CEO and someone who was regarded as a top negotiator during his time at the noisy neighbors, you would have expected a bit more from him. The deal for Cunha was quick and not a bad price which shows what he can do but I think we need more than just one player because as he said, we finished 15th, went trophyless and with no European football for next season. You need more than just one top player to turn things around and make us believe that by 2028, we will win the league.
Berrada mentions how he believes in Amorim as well. This makes sense considering the CEO was the main driving force behind the appointment of Amorim as manager after the sacking of Erik ten Hag, if reports can be believed. So of course he's going to say he backs the manager even more so because his arse is a little on the line as well
However, Amorim will only be a success based on the business done for him. We can see that with this group of players, we will fail just as we have done for so many years in the past.
It's also not only about signing players who are good enough but also ones with the right character, personality, attitude, mindset. We have been missing such qualities in a player which is part of the reason as to why we find ourselves in the position we're in, one of not even showing up in a European final.
I did like the Berrada appointment as after having seen what he did previously at City and Barcelona and that clip of him and the now former Man City Director of Football Txiki Bergiristain, I was really impressed and kind of excited at him joining the club.
We had Ed Woodward who did this role for so long and he had no idea what he was doing. Everyone knew he was a banker and even Sir Jim said the same regarding the former chief executive: “I wouldn’t have tolerated Ed Woodward... He was a merchant banker, an accountant. He wasn’t the chief executive.”
We didn't need anyone to tell us that but for it to be coming from the new co-owners who got into bed with the people who employed this 'merchant banker' as their chief executive and one of their great pals who helped them acquire United all those years ago, was a bold statement.
The shows even more how little the Glazers actually care about United. To have their new partner come in and slate a former employee of theirs and seemingly say nothing about it is eye-opening.
What else do we expect, I suppose 🤷♂️.
Back to Berrada, because he was so impressive in all he did before joining United and how he worked his way from Business Administrator to MUFC CEO, I was wowed by how INEOS could take such an important figure at Man City (Berrada was Chief Football Operations Officer for 5 years, indicating how high he was in their hierarchy) and make him the Man Utd CEO just two months after their 27.7% takeover, was seriously unbelievable.
That is where the start of that Avengers-style football structure began. There's been some changes and unhappiness since then, but anyway.
I personally felt like if there was anyone who I could trust out of all those who joined the club since the INEOS partial takeover, it was Berrada simply because of what he did before and how he conducted business.
Now though, he's just appearing as another mouth piece that talks shite, just as we had before.
There is also so much tension at the club over the way it's run including the high ticket prices and the sacking of over 200 staff. This was perhaps not the best time to make such a statement at least to the public.
These words of his stating that he believes we can win the league by 2028 puts added pressure onto everyone, which was unwanted considering the immense pressure the club already had.
This also adds an unnecessary expectaion especially for the upcoming season because it has to be one of relative success for us all to truly believe these words said by the CEO. I doubt it will be as bad as finishing 15th (surely we can't do worse than that, right?) so league position will improve but just making it into the top half and qualifying for the Confernece or Europa League simply won't cut the mustard.
We need to see a proper fight for top 4/5 if we don't make it into the Champions League positions and win a cup or two. A goal to win the league in the next three years means a BIG season next season.
Ruben Amorim will have loads of pressure as it will be his first full season in charge of the team and if given the players he wants, the expectations from not only the fans but the club as well to deliver, will be huge.
Did he really need all of that added pressure?
Makes you question Berrada as CEO when many think it was unwise to say such things at this difficult point in the club's history.
With the 25/26 Premier League fixtures just announced, it is a tough start to the campaign which makes things even more difficult for the team next season. If we don't do early business in the window, we may find ourselves far behind just a matter of games into the new campaign. This won't help Berrada in his statement that we can win the league by 2028.
United's first five for next season:
Arsenal (H)
Fulham (A)
Burnley (H)
Man City (A)
Chelsea (A)
But what do you make of Omar Berrada's statement that United can win the league by 2028?
Absolute scenes when we actually achieve this 😭😭.
Or achieve it earlier 👀.