- Ruben Amorim has had a difficult start to life at Manchester United
- Sir Alex Ferguson took six-and-a-half years to win his first league title
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! The signs that Ruben Amorim’s Man United side are getting there
Ruben Amorim says he is not ‘crazy’ enough to think Manchester United can win the Premier League title next season, but knows that he won’t have as long as Sir Alex Ferguson to turn the club around.
Ferguson took six-and-a-half years to win the title after arriving at Old Trafford in November 1986 as he brought an era of unprecedented success to United.
The club have launched Project 150 and Mission 21 to win their 21st title on the club’s 150th anniversary in 2028. And while Amorim is in a hurry to make that happen, he admits that next season will be too soon to make United champions again.
‘I understand, I’m not naive,’ he said ahead of the 196th Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sunday. ‘I don’t want to think like we need a lot of years to be competitive. I cannot think like that. I cannot manage like that. It is not in me.
‘That is why I am putting pressure on myself. I know that we are not going to be the biggest contender in the next year or two years. I know we need to do a lot of things. But I will not think like that and say I need a lot of years.
‘We are in a rush. So we are suffering a lot for next year to be so much better, and that is our goal. Sometimes things can happen. so I don’t want to be that guy that is here saying we need a lot of time. I will not be that coach.
Ruben Amorim says he is not ‘crazy’ enough to think Man United can win the title next season
Ferguson took six-and-a-half years to win the league title after arriving at Old Trafford
‘It’s not that next year is our goal. I am not saying that we are going to win the title next year, I am not crazy.
‘So I know it is really hard to do something like that in one year. We have to change a lot of things. We are changing a lot of staff, we are changing a lot of things inside the club.
‘We are doing a lot of things, putting in some standards. Sometimes we change players because they have not adjusted here, sometimes they have to learn to adjust to our new standards.’
However, Amorim knows he will not have as long as Ferguson did to make United champions again.
‘The Premier League is so different,’ he added. ‘I have a lot of people saying Sir Alex Ferguson took three or four years to win something, it is not possible nowadays because you have to speak three times and give three interviews before every game, so the pressure is completely different.
‘Any team in the Premier League can win. But we are Manchester United. There are a lot of good things, there is bad things. No matter the context, we have to be there with the best ones.
‘We will have to face a lot of adversity and a lot of big teams, more than in the past but let’s focus on that and try to win the next game.’
