Manchester United fans have been given hope of a revival under the club’s new minority owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, has acknowledged that City’s era of dominance won’t last forever. While City has lifted the Premier League trophy in five of the last six years, United have gone over a decade without winning the title.
Ratcliffe has laid out his plan to “knock City off their perch” within three years and, ahead of the 192nd Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, Guardiola has said it might be possible.
“In the 80s it was Liverpool, in the 90s it was United and now we have won seven Premier Leagues in the last 11 or 12 years,” Guardiola told a news conference on Friday.
“In 50 or 60 years, there has never been one country where one team dominates and controls everything but we try to extend this as much as possible for many years.”
Between the 2017-18 and 2022-23 seasons, City secured the Premier League trophy an astonishing five times, only finishing second once to Liverpool in 2019-20. This period cemented their position as one of the Premier League’s most successful teams.
