Manchester United have underwhelmed under the stewardship of Ruben Amorim and former star Nicky Butt does not believe that the tide will start to turn any time soon
Nicky Butt has claimed that Manchester United are “rotten from the bottom up” and that they won’t challenge for the Premier League title for at least eight years. The Red Devils have endured a rollercoaster decade since Sir Alex Ferguson‘s retirement.
David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag have all come and gone to various levels of success. Ruben Amorim was appointed as the latter’s replacement last season but the Portuguese has failed to inspire an upturn in fortunes.
United endured their worst-ever Premier League season last term and had a similarly woeful start this time around. And while they have since recovered, Butt has suggested that their problems lie on the pitch – and not even the most talented managers would restore the club to its former glory.
Speaking to FourFourTwo, the former United star said: “For me, it’s fundamentally that the club is rotten from the bottom up at the minute.
“If you brought prime Sir Alex Ferguson back in, he wouldn’t be able to turn it around straight away, it would still take time. If you put Pep Guardiola in there, or Jurgen Klopp, it wouldn’t work either.
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“Ultimately, I think the players we’re buying and the players that we’re able to buy aren’t at the level we used to have, so it’s about accepting the fact that it’s going to take five to eight years in order to get the club back to anywhere near winning the Premier League.” He then added: “It’s been a s**tshow.”
Despite Butt’s claim that the Red Devils won’t be title contenders until at least 2033, United CEO Omar Berrada has claimed that it’s the club’s ambition to claim the Premier League crown by 2028.
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Speaking in the summer, he said: “It’s establishing a series of targets within a timeframe so we can focus our efforts and energy on that goal. Can the team win the Premier League title by 2028? Of course.
“We’ve just finished 15th and it seems an impossible task. But why not aim for it? Why not do everything in our power?”
He added: “I firmly believe we can do it. We have two or three summer windows to build a team to start competing to win the Premier League.
“Nobody is saying we don’t want to win it until then. We’re setting ourselves a target with a specific time frame to go and aim for.”
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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
