“There’s going to be a lot of pain” - Nicky Butt makes prediction on when Manchester United will become title challengers under Ruben Amorim

Former Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt believes it will take at least two years for the club to become Premier League title challengers under Ruben Amorim. He said that the Portuguese manager will look to assess his squad and move in the next four transfer markets accordingly.

After a disappointing start to the 2024-25 campaign, the Red Devils sacked Erik ten Hag towards the end of October. They appointed Ruben Amorim as their new manager and he took charge on November 11. Under him, they have won two, lost one, and drawn one of their four games across competitions.

In a recent interview with talkSPORT, Nicky Butt shared his thoughts on when Amorim could make Manchester United title challengers.

“There’s going to be a lot of pain," Butt said (via Caught Offside). “There’s going to be some pain coming, it’ll continue to come because he has to go and look at the players and he’s got to play them."

“So everyone will be going, ‘he’s not done anything for the last three seasons, why are you giving him a game?’ Because this new guy’s got to go in, he’s got to give the lads a chance, he’s got to see what he’s got. And then he can go to the board and say, ‘I don’t want that player, pay his contracts up, pay his contracts up, get that player for me, get that player for me’ and he can start building his own," he added.

“And it’s going to be two seasons, it’s going to be two years. It’s going to be four transfer windows until we get where we need to be and challenging [at] the top of the table,” Butt concluded.

Manchester United haven't won the Premier League title since 2013 which was Sir Alex Ferguson's final season at the club.

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Ruben Amorim asserts the need for more time after Manchester United's loss against Arsenal

The Red Devils suffered a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, December 4. Jurrien Timber (54') and William Saliba (73') both scored from corners to secure a win for the hosts.

After the game, Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim spoke about needing more time and said (via manutd.com):

“You learn all the time, it’s not a good thing or a good feeling, it’s really hard. But you have to take the positives and the negatives like in ever other game. So, let’s focus on everything we are doing, recover all the players to be fresh on the next game and go again. Full stadium with our fans and we are going to succeed. We need a little bit of time.”

Manchester United are currently 13th in the Premier League table. They will next host Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford on Saturday, December 7. They will then face Viktoria Plzen away in the UEFA Europa League (Dec. 12) before the big match against rivals Manchester City away on December 15.