Football manager predicts Manchester United’s next decade. Some interesting developments include, Klopp and Zidane as managers.
After enjoying 2 and a half decades under Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United are now at an all time low. Fans have begun losing faith in the side and it appears that standards have dropped at the club. The only treble winning English side with a season target of qualifying for the Champions league does not sound right.
Also read: Ed Woodward explains why Man Utd ignored Jose Mourinho’s transfer targets
However, with the club’s fortunes as it is, unless the club sink to new lows, Ole Gunnar Soslkjaer will very possibly lead the club into the next decade. As dramatic as the last 10 years have been, Manchester United and their fans will hope for a better decade.
While time travel may not be possible (Yet!), we do have the services of football manager to see into the future. Manchester Evening News have run a decade long simulation on FM 2020 and here are the results.
Football manager predicts Manchester United’s next decade
2019/20
Steven Bergwijn is perhaps the most notable name in the list of people Soslkjaer was allowed to bring in this January by Ed Woodward. Phil Jones on the other hand was offloaded to West Ham for 14 million.
Season results:
Surprisingly, Manchester United somehow clinch a top 4 spot this season and qualify for the Champions league. Pretty sure any United fan would glad-handed take this result. The team of the season is almost identical to the one Soslkjaer prefers to play when handed a fully fit squad. The only difference is Juan Mata playing on the right instead of Daniel James.
2020/21
This is the season where United go hard in the Transfer Market. Soslkjaer bolsters his squad with the inclusion of Tottenham’s Dele Alli, AS Roma’s Lorenzo Pellegrini and Sporting’s Bruno Fernandes; the last of whom will end up as the highest scorer and assist provider for United in the 2020/21 season.
Nemanja Matic leaves for the UAE on a free transfer while Andreas Pereira goes to Stoke. Jesse Lingard is shipped off to Wolverhampton on a loan. As mouth watering as this season’s transfer activity is, it is hard to believe that Tottenham, especially under Mourinho, would ever agree to sell Dele Alli to United.
Season results:
United end up having a much better result this term with a second-place finish in the Premier League and an FA Cup victory. The team of the season wears a massively different look than it did last season. Anthony Martial swaps his forward position with Rashford and switches to the right.
Dele Alli and Bruno Fernandes take the right and centre positions respectively. While Juan Mata replaces, Scott McTominay in the centre. The back four and the keeper remain the same.
2021/22
This season, United kept their transfer activities mostly within England. They purchase Lewis Cook from Bournemouth, James Maddison from Leicester and Danny Rose from Tottenham. Surprisingly, Rashford gets sold to Chelsea for a colossal 121 million! Other notable departures include Chris Smalling joining Norwich and Scott McTominay hilariously joining Mexican club Tigres.
Season results:
Despite keeping United in top 4 for the 3rd consecutive season. A third-place finish behind Manchester City and Liverpool in the premier league and a quarter final loss to Barcelona in the Champions league sees Solskjaer resigning from his post by Mutual consent.
Bruno Fernandes is still the club’s highest scorer while Alli, Pogba and Pellegrini share the highest assists among themselves. Bergwijn replaces Martial on the right while Mason Greenwood takes the place of Rashford in the striker’s position. James Maddison replaces Juan Mata in United’s team of the 2021/22 season.
2022/23
The season starts with the most shocking of news. After being sacked by Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp has been appointed Manchester United’s new manager. In his first season as United boss, Klopp spends 304 million to bring in 9 players! More players than United have purchased in the last two seasons. Federico Chiesa, Ruben Dias and Wilfred Ndidi being the most notable among the buys.
Tahith Chong and Angel Gomes were sent out on a free while Lingard made his move to Wolverhampton permanent and James moved to West Ham.
Season results:
Under Klopp, United change their position to a 4-3-3 with Greenwood still the striker. Alli also holds on to the left wing. However, the top scorer in the last two seasons, Fernandes loses his place in the team, due to the team not employing an attacking midfielder. Instead he loses out to Ndidi, who slots into the team as the defensive midfielder.
Bergwijn loses his place to new recruit Chiesa on the right and Maddison is replaced by Pellegrini in the centre. Chiesa ends up being United’s highest scorer while Pellegrini records the highest assists. Unfortunately, Manchester United end the season at 4th place and Jurgen Klopp gets the boot after just one season with the club.
2023/24
Jurgen Klopp is shockingly replaced by former Borussia Dortmund boss Lucien Favre. Favre also spends massively and brings in Dayot Upamecano, Jose Gimenez, Gedson Fernandes, Benjamin Nygren and Greg Taylor for a total of £224 million.
With the team reverting back to a 4-2-3-1, the out of favour Ndidi gets shipped to Barcelona for 43 million while Brandon Williams and Axel Tuanzebe were let go on a free.
Season results:
This season, Manchester United amass a massive 82 points. However, they still end up at 3rd place behind City and Liverpool yet again. Mason Greenwood registers the most goals for United while Bruno Fernandes, who finds his place in the team once again, makes the most assists.
2024/25
Favre continues to spend heavily as he brings in Moussa Diaby, Ruben Vinagre, Thomas Buitink, Charly Musonda and Danny Ward for £214 million. James Maddison moves back to Norwich for 35 million while Henderson and Diogo Dalot move to Newcastle and Sparta Moscow respectively.
Season results:
Manchester United end the season once again at 3rd place. A frustrated Favre decides to resign out of his frustration at not being able to break Liverpool and City’s duopoly in the Premier League. He is replaced by yet another high-profile manager; Zinedine Zidane.
2025/26
Zidane starts his reign as United boss with some interesting signings. He brings in Diogo Jota from Juventus, Thomas Lemar from Atletico Madrid and Declan Rice from Wolves. Victor Lindelof and Luciano Ferreira were moved to Ukraine, while Maguire’s time at United ended on a free.
Season results:
Manchester United end out of the top 4 for the first time this decade. Although, new signing Lemar impresses with the most assists. Highest goal scorer, Greenwood has now become one of Europe’s best striker. With the team reverting to a 4-3-3, Rice finds a place in the team as a defensive midfielder.
2026/27
For the first time this decade, and quite out of character from Zidane, this transfer season sees United only purchasing two players with one of them being Frenkie de Jong from PSG for 121 million. To balance the books, United let go of several players to bring in 109 million.
Season results:
Zidane’s team shows a marked improvement with a 3rd place finish and an FA Cup victory. Both Greenwood and Leymar continue from where they left off last season and end up with the most goals and assists in the season.
The team of the season-line up sees, De Jong replacing Rice and Pellegrini replacing Fernandes. Only Wan-Bissaka and De Gea remain in the back 4 from the team that started the decade.
2027/28
Zidane chooses to pick quality over quantity once again as he picks up Barcelona’s Pedri for 109 million. Jota and Musounda were sent off to Inter Milan and CSKA Moscow respectively.
Season results:
Manchester United fell a spot to end up at 4th in the Premier League. They also reached the semi-final of the Champions league but lost to Borussia Dortmund, Greenwood continues to remain the club’s highest scorer but De Jong has replaced Lemar with the most assists. Gedsen Fernandes and Pedri have displaced both Pellegrini and Pogba from the midfield in the team of the season.
2028/29
Zidane finally purchased a host of players this season. However, 2 of them were and the other 2 came for a combined fee of around 6 million. However, he brought in Younes Thouvenin and Arber Morina from AS Monaco and Ajax for over £100 million.
Dele Alli’s tenure was bought to an end after he was shifted out to West Ham while Ruben Vinagre made the jump to Zidane’s former club Real Madrid.
Season Results:
United secured yet another 4th place finish but added another trophy with the Carabao cup. David De Gea and Paul Pogba retired at the ages of 36 and 38 respectively as club legends leaving Wan-Bissaka as the only player from United’s starting XI in 2019 to still be playing.
Greenwood and De Jong continue to make the most goals and assists. Arber Morina replaced De Gea on goal while Chris Hewitt took Pedri’s place in the team of the season.
2029/30
Zidane continued stocking his side with more players as he spent 99m on 6 players. Former Liverpool player Ben Woodburn was offloaded to Newcastle for 21 million.
Season Results:
United end the decade with no Premier League title or Champions League trophies to their name. However, in the final season of the decade, the Red Devils win both the domestic Cups winning the FA and the Carabao cup.
De Jong continues to make the most assists, but Chiesa replaces Greenwood as the highest scorer. In fact, Greenwood even loses his place in the team of the season to Younes Thouvenin. This means that Aaron-Wan Bissaka ends the decade as the only original Manchester United player to still find a place in the team of the season.
United’s team of the decade
United’s team of the decade sees a line-up featuring a 4-3-3 formation. Surprisingly, Arber Morina starts on goal. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Dayot Upamecano, Ruben Dias and Viraly Mykolenko make up the back 4. Declan Rice plays the role of the holding midfielder while Dele Alli and Bruno Fernandes share the midfield.
Steven Bergwign and Fedrico Chiesa play on the right and left wings respectively while Mason Greenwood plays as the striker.
Conclusion
It is kind of disappointing if you’re a United fan to think that the club failed to win either of the Champions League and Premier League in the next decade. However, there was no decline in the quality of players or managers that came to the club. Although, it seems very unlikely that Jurgen Klopp would ever be fired by Liverpool or hired by Manchester United unless he does a Mourinho.
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