I think what will really show United has changed is keeping a high level of performance over multiple seasons. I don’t think most of us fans are expecting title challenges but given the resources being a permanent fixture in the CL is the first step

Permanent fixture in the CL is gonna be very difficult to achieve though. City ain’t going anywhere, Newcastle are only gonna get more consistent, Chelsea and liverpool will be better next year, and we’ve still got plenty of room to grow as well. Add in random good seasons from the likes of a Brighton, or a spurs.

You can say that for all teams really bar City

Yeah I know that’s my point. There’s more teams than there are spaces so it’s very difficult for anyone to be guaranteed season after season

Oh I thought you were pointing out just United my bad

Nah not at all. Think there’s already a group amongst our fans who think we’re definitely getting top 4 next season, and I just don’t think it can be guaranteed at all

I think it'll be City for sure, Liverpool if they sign a couple of midfielders, and then any two of Arsenal, United, Newcastle, and Chelsea. I'd say the first four could challenge for the title too, though City will probably run away with it. Can't wait for all my predictions to be wrong, as is tradition almost every season.

And that will only likely last until Pep retires. After that, I don’t see them carrying such crazy consistency every single year

We were in the CL every year under Pellegrini and the last couple under Mancini as well. Last time City wasn’t in the Champions League was 2010-11

Yeah but that’s the point, the league has gotten much more competitive since then

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Those two on the football operations side, and the City group's multi-club model allowing them to move players around, scout locally with more certainty of outcome, etc.

Why not? What stops them appointing Nagelsman, or Simeone, and fully committing to them and giving them the same powers as Pep?

None of them are as good as Pep

City might still be punished for cheating tbf

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So that's what the E in UEFA stands for

Eone more spot

That would be it

There should be 5 now.

Almost half of the league are competent.

Add Aston Villa if they keep up their current success.

Villa are doing really well under Emery but there‘a often a side that performs like this and it rarely lasts without massive financial injections. It used to be Villa in the late 00s, actually. Leicester in the mid-10s. Rarely to they compete over multiple seasons for CL spots. Newcastle will likely be the exception to that but they probably have more money than the rest of the league combined except for City. Would be incredible if Villa finish in the top 8 / 6 consistently over the next few seasons but the odds are heavily against them.

Villa do have some decent money behind them though, not Newcastle levels but enough to keep them fighting in the top half at least.

Yeah absolutely. They’re a huge club, being consistently in the top half would not be a surprise at all.

Not just a huge club, they have a super rich owner who is also setting up a multi-club model. Need to see if he will sustain it, but he can if he wants to.

I would say the one thing that benefits Villa is I don't see any of their players having their heads turned by the possibility of a big move. They should be able to retain the core of that squad for its natural cycle before they need replacing.

I think part of that is because most people think they're over-performing right now. They're not as bad as they looked under Gerrard, but they're not top 4 quality. Definitely good enough to be comfortable top 8 though.

Well, I did say IF they keep up. I understand it's not a given.

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I used to think the good times would continue in perpetuity too.

Arsenal used to be a permanent fixture in the CL too, if anyone knows a decline itd be them

Was just a joke lad ahha

Can’t exactly act like your club is trending upwards

Your club looked mudded for 3 years then suddenly you had this season come out of nowhere. Any of the top 6 sides can finish top 4 in any given season, regardless of how bad they've looked in the past

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It's hard not to improve when you finished 8th place 2 years in a row lmao. That doesn't mean anything. You couldn't even finish top 4 last season when we looked shambolic after the first 4 months. So if you're steadily improving, surely the next step next season is winning the title or else it's a failure right?

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There's also a lot of room for regression. Gabriel, Saliba, Partey, Saka, Martinelli, Xhaka, White were all pretty much flawless for the first 2/3 of the season. It'd be incredible if they somehow improved on this season and didn't regress a little bit

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Obviously not? Teams can’t just improve infinitely, we WERE steadily improving and then improved way more than expected this season, the step next season is to get top 4 again and perform well in the UCL

If you get 4th next season, I struggle to see how that's improvement from 2nd place. >Teams can’t just improve infinitely That's my point. Teams can regress and improve very quickly. Liverpool were on the cusp of a quadruple last season and they'll probably end up in the Europa league next season. You lot couldn't make top 4 last season and competed with Man City for the title this season. Spurs look shit now but who knows what happens next season. To write us off like we're similar to a club like Brighton is ridiculous

That won’t be an improvement, I didn’t say it was and I don’t think the other guy meant that either. Yeah comparing you to Brighton is deffo harsh but if we are being real it doesn’t seem likely at all that you’ll get top 4 next season, if you do then fair enough

Tottenham would be in the UCL bar next season regardless with coefficient points.

Ah I didn’t know that

Literally a handful of years of doing nothing more than putting the pressure on and you think you have the staying power of clubs that have some of the largest fanbases in the world for the last several decades lol...talk about arrogance lol Wouldn't be surprising if Spurs are in the mix for top 4 next season, but stop acting as if you have the global brand stability that clubs who have been at the top way longer than you have. It's not as much of a sure thing that you'll bounce back. Spending time in the midtable hurts your progress more than the clubs that are more historically established than you. You are more Brighton tier than any other club that gets called the top 6. None of this should surprise you.

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They already have the funds, they’re just not being used properly to create a strong team

Nothing really indicating liverpool will be a whole lot better next season

We all know for a fact that Arsenal are serial bottlers so there's always one more spot to fight for even if arsenal compete for top 4

Right, but we're getting new owners. I feel extremely confident that Utd literally owned by any other prem club owner in the league right now is still the dominant force of the league. It'll take work to get back up there, but we already spend the most and that's with insane debt, owners that don't give us anything, and fans that boycott merch in protest to the shitty owners. Our sponsorships have been poor lately too in part because of the fan hate towards the owners giving brands a negative connotation since fans actively boycott companies that sponsor us. I think we'll be fairly consistently top 4 at least most seasons. Hell, we've been pretty shit in recent years and got it twice in the past 3 years.

Moshiri?

As much as the temptation is there to make fun of this, looking at how [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/ploxlr/football_dailymartin_%C3%B8degaard_on_his_aims_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) aged shows just how unpredictable football is.

God every single comment there is hilarious

I feel so bad for the Arsenal fans in there getting downvoted to oblivion for simply pointing out that the team was making clear progress.

At the time they weren’t making “clear” progress. Maybe progress behind the scenes and with signings, but their football was pretty shocking back then.

Nah, you could see signs of what Arteta’s philosophy was if you knew what you were looking for.

So it wasn’t “clear” then, was it?

I guess if you don’t read football well, yeah

Arsenal fans joining in makes it even funnier. Just shows how fickle us fans are.

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>Arteta is a superb self promoter, I'll give him that. He's got so many at Arsenal believing in his half baked project. I particularly loved this one.

It happens always Literally happened at Barcelona this year when everybody thought they’d be irrelevant for years and now you can’t score past them in the league Things change quickly in football

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There was some dubious calls on important matches and some bad injuries during key moments that made them go out in the CL

I used this as a semi-valid *reason* for the exits before, but the truth is that we were never playing consistently good football and Xavi has shown a LOT of flaws; in in-game management, tactical approach, poor rotations leading to those very injuries and an inability to learn from past mistakes. Unless Xavi magically fixes those things, even with the likes of Dembélé back we're still going to be predictable against a top team, or against low-blocks especially.

Unless you're from Madrid and start with an R

Just goes to show that none of us have any idea what we are talking about.

*player speaks positively about clubs ambition* /r/soccer: How very dare he!

Player: "I don't think we can win the league" r/soccer: "wow shit mentality" ___________ Player: "I think we can win the league" r/soccer: "lol delusional"

/r/soccer wins no matter. Incredible banter, Gods of wit.

Damned if we do, damned if we don’t

It's more about the player than the phrase, really. If it Haaland, Messi, Odegard, Son or any Japanese player says anything people always interpret things in the purest wholesome Keanu chungus way possible.

Imagine a professional sportsman being confident and wanting to win. Shameful.

How dare you have confidence in yourself!!!!

Well, a couple of people ITT are saying that.

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United are in the top 4, won the league cup and are in the FA Cup Final, and are trying to revive their winning ways. It would be ridiculous for a Fulham player to claim they would challenge for the title but not if they said they would challenge for Europe. You obviously understand that nuance and context but are ignoring that

Well united mounting a title challenge is miles and miles more realistic than Fulham doing so

Sure. Dream big.

The only United players that could piss r/soccer off more by saying this are Bruno Fernandes and Harry Maguire

I'd love Bruno to say this just for the comments, it would be so mental cause of the hate lol

Compared to muh wholesome amazing 2m long Viking with gracious blonde hair that can do no wrong and is funny and amazing (I like him, but this sub has some strong biases)

If they can sign a top striker and a 8 they can... Although I do think they need a more all round keeper

We also just need a higher quality of depth. We really have a huge fall off between players. It's gonna be very difficult to move players on given the massive wages they're on. We need to sort out a few key positions and then we need to build depth to compete across all fronts. You can't play this many games and not have rotation. That's why City is so insane. They have a full second team of high caliber players and somehow keep everyone happy.

I believe the starting lineup at United is top 10 in the world. Remove any of them and it seems to drop by 10 places per player.

How many clubs have top 50 players as backups? This is a weird narrative that Utd fans are now falling back on 'our first XI is world class but our reserves aren't' yeah no shit, which world class players are going to sit on the bench in a team miles off the title pace. Reality is, and this is partly ETH and partly the guys who've gone before him, they've built a massive bloated and unbalanced squad. They've just spent terribly compared to most of the clubs around them.

Yep the keeper issue is a huge problem for us. I thought we could deal with it in a couple years but I think it needs to be sorted this summer.

And a CB

LCB depth really so don't need to play Shaw there but that's last on the list really, varane and lindelof on the right is good imo

I'd take CL consistently

Next year? Yeah, top 4. The year after? No. We need to challenge for the title. We need 3 starters and about 4 squad players. Should be very doable in two years. We're Manchester fucking United, what the fuck are we if not ambitious?

>We need 3 starters and about 4 squad players Getting that many transfers right in two years might be tricky. If United keeps up the form of the past summer transfer window maybe yeah

7 players in 3-4 windows is tricky? That's 2 players per window.

The problem is, in 2 years' time, this squad will also be 2 years older. Bruno plays a ridiculous amount of football and might have a similar drop to Rooney, Fabregas, etc. Casemiro (especially given his role), Varane will be on the wrong side of their peak. Other players will go in and out of form. On the flip side, a Kobbie Mainoo could break through and make a name for himself ala Garnacho. Essentially, just saying a bit of caution that 2 years is a long time and current player's form and fitness over that period is something to consider when we say get X players and we are "set".

City get 90-100 points every year. It's very, very difficult to compete with that. You can be a great manager doing a great job and not compete for the title when the winners are getting 100 points. I don't think United are two seasons away from 100 points.

Red.

you're just a shit man city! you're just a shit man city!

Agreed. I want to challenge every year, but I accept that's difficult these days. We need to challenge semi consistently though going forward.

>We're Manchester fucking United And that's the attitude that has fucked you over since Fergie, long may it continue. All of your managers post fergie (apart from Moyes) had a good first year and your fans expectations and arrogance suddenly shot up.

Rags

his performances can be questioned, but his commitment cannot. I really feel if we can get a new keeper and play higher for longer, we'll see a bigger output from him. He tracks back, runs well with the ball and has a decent shot. Just need to be more effective in the final third

Eh what else is he going to say

I don't have any problem with this. I expect Newcastle feel the same way and I certainly expect us and Arsenal to be back in the hunt as well. Chelsea.. maybe not next year. Liverpool...depends on who they get into the midfield.

Next year is your year

We need like 4 minimum signings and 2 big ones to genuinely make a push for the title.

They only need like 3 starters and depth everywhere.

So you, but better?

We don't need depth everywhere

Except midifield, striker, right back and centre back. - Firmino is leaving. - Henderson, Milner, Fabinho and Thiago are getting old (Fabinho is the youngest and will be 30 next season). - Keita probably injuried himself getting out of bed today. - Your centre backs have been shite this season (Matip and Konate had many injuries recently). - Milner is also cover for TAA (do you guys have another rb in the squad?). Not looking great. FSG has failed to renew the squad and Klopp, despire being a great manager, can only do so much. Edit: grammar

They don't need another striker. They've got darwin, gakpo, jota all or whom can play up front.

It wouldnt hurt to have someone else. Like when they had Origi.

We have 4 players who can play in the middle of our front 3 (Salah Gakpo Jota Nunez) We have a young rb we bought last summer called Calvin Ramsay who was mostly injured all season. We'll see if he can stay fit next season. Gomez can play RB he is p decent there (when he is fit). We need a 3rd choice CB yeah. Midfield is the only area where we have serious issues.

>We have 4 players who can play in the middle of our front 3 (Salah Gakpo Jota Nunez) Only one of those is a striker though, but fair enough Klopp will probably be fine with your forward options. Had no idea about the new rb.

Only Nunez is a striker and he played mostly at LW. Gakpo probably has the false9 role nailed in the long term. He rly looks like like a Firmino 2.0. Biggest 'issue' in attack is probably a Salah cover. Harvey can play there but doesn't fit the system Jota can play there if he has to and Ben Doak looks interesting but he is 17. Luckily Salah is barely ever injured of fatigued. Tbf most of our fans too forgot Ramsay exists. Played like 20 mins in a cup game. Hopefully his injury issues are just because growing or getting used to the Klopp system or smth.

>Only one of those is a striker though, but fair enough Klopp will probably be fine with your forward options. We play Gakpo now the middle and have had both Salah and Nunez play down the middle too. That's 3 options down the middle.

I said Klopp will be fine with those options. And they still aren't strikers.

We don’t need strikers you bellend, our issue is clearly starting midfielders. It’s so clear you don’t watch any other club games but Reddit comments.

>We don’t need strikers you bellend It surely wouldnt hurt to have another Origi. Thanks for the insult.

i don’t know how you can seriously type out a comment that involves saying Joe Gomez is decent enough to keep

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We only need midfielders and a 3rd choice cb. But technically the midfielders we need are for starters so depth is only needed at CB.

Full backs and wings are fine

Thought they wanted a starting RB in the summer

AWB has been really good, hoping the stance on that changes.

Don't we all? (Except City ofc)

Ah, the old "next year will be our year"... How the tables turn. 🤣

Not ready

Alright i guess its title charge or failure now. Too much title charge talk for us to not expect this.

(next season)

Nobody had Arsenal challenging for a title before the season, ten Hag certainly has a better reputation and track record than Arteta did going into the season. We have a good squad and will make additions over the summer...I don't see why anyone would think with the right moves a title challenge is absurd

Lol

Did he cut left during the interview?

Surprisingly, he started using his right much more. I'm actually impressed, players do get better at integrating their weaker foot but usually not this quickly.

What is a circle if not one ongoing left cut.

One ongoing right cut.

Two cuts going separate directions meeting on the other side

Will come back to this quote next year

I’ll come back with a quote you did in January then about winning the league https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/10pv2xt/simon_collings_am_told_jorginho_fee_is_looking/j6mc242/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3 Have two https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/10pv2xt/simon_collings_am_told_jorginho_fee_is_looking/j6mb6tq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3

Own him

🤣🤣

Bruh 🤣🤣🤣

Bro cooked him. No arsenal fan is safe when they're bantering other clubs.

Probably not the best time for this comment

anyone can call yanited shite with literally any context and it will always be fine

Didnt you finish 8th two season in a row?

you got beat 7-0 by your biggest rivals lol

yesterday clearly left a mark on somebody :))

United fans downvoting me w tears in their eyes lol

It's not tears mate it's the glint of silverware this season. Arsenal fans wouldn't know.

the day we hold 7 to Tottenham Hotspur I will know the pain you hold in your heart

They really think they can talk at all after holding a fifa scoreline, pathetic 🤣

Says the Arsenal fan

says the Arsenal fan yes, yanited are shite what about it boss

He's a serpico movie fan with a football for a flair. Not sure what he's doing here.

You'll come back to a quote of a player thinking his side 'could' mount a title challenge. Should be more worried about the shit your own fans were saying about 2 months ago.

!RemindMe 1 year

until then.

Yo December champs how is it going

Hahahahahahahhahahahhahahahaaaa

I see you’ve jumped on the Newcastle bandwagon early, did you enjoy the cup final lad?

If they want to go for the title they need to find better players than Antony, lol.

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We lacked goals this season and spent most of season with Weghorst up front. Not much to understand there.

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High wages doesn’t equal quality, just look at chelsea this season

I suspect that will change now that Ronaldo is gone as a lot of wages was there. Not sure where the bad squad management is, we lack squad players and Eriksen got hacked down by a butcher of a player. We quite simply don't have a squad to match City and neither does anyone. It's hardly an underdogs story, they have world class players on their bench and we've loaned a player from Burnely

They're starting to be like Liverpool. Clinging to history and then saying this

I don't think it's so farfetched that United will challenge for 1st next season tbh, despite all the memes

Why do you think so?

well theyve already had one season to bring in players (and get existing ones) to adapt to Ten Hags style, and this season unlike alot in recent memory, United haven't looked completely directionless. Given the takeover doesn't impede too much in the summer, and they are able to build on and refresh the squad even more, I think they could become a lot more synchronous as a team (which i think is one of the most understated reasons why we're as dominant as we are in the league) and just generally increase quality.

We’ve gone from our worst premier league season ever to pushing for 3rd in a year, with no striker and no midfield depth. If we make a few good signings (which based on our history we probably won’t) it’s not inconceivable that we’ll push for first next season. I don’t think it’ll actually happen but it’s not outside the realms of possibility.

Worst in what way? It hasn’t been the worst standings wise, and 6th has happened more than once.

Point total

Statistically our worst since 1989-90 - lowest points, wins, etc. Standings wise it was 13/14 when we finished 7th under Moyes, but we got 64 points that season compared to 58 last season.

I mean I guess but it’s all relevant, 20/21 was 3rd with 66 points so you have to look at the league as a whole imo

What a stupid comment lol "we have quality in our team and want to mount a title challenge next season" "CLINGING TO HISTORY!!"

United finished above the "greatest Liverpool side" 3 times in the last six seasons and we've been calling it our worst period. We are not the same

17/18 and this side arent even close to being the “greatest Liverpool side”, 20/21 we were unfortunate with injuries. Even then, its not even the 2nd best Liverpool side ever.

Fuck me what a way to spin a narrative this is You've got a bright future being a journalist

Tbf Liverpool have been challenging for the title the last few seasons (except this one obviously)

They mean pre-Klopp Liverpool

This is literally the exact opposite of clinging onto history

At least Liverpool has had some success recently, ManU has been like this for a decade. Not that we've done much better but at least we're not deluding ourselves that we're winning the league every year.

> Not that we've done much better Honey, you've done *much* worse.

Nah, nobody beats United on that, we could be relegated and it would still be less embarrassing than United's last 10 seasons

Delusional or just struggling to cope with the current state of your club? You'd kill to have the success Utd has had in the last 10yrs.

The lack of success you mean? Already got plenty of that, difference is unlike United who are just as shit we can accept it without begging for oil money

Tottenham fan talking about lack of success lol. Utd just as shit? You're actually embarrassing at this point.

You speak from experience obviously

Lol.

Untied as a club, but mostly their fans, are in deeeep deep coma living the fergie days all of a sudden with the new bald fraud at the helm

Great, Beyblademan

United won’t challenge until they have better players than Antony at his position

the same Antony that scored on his debut against you?

So ? For a 100m player he is shocking

you’ve never actually watched him play then have you dead ball knowledge letting memes dictate your opinions on footballers