Paul Pogba told talkSPORT he believes Manchester United will be English champions within three years, saying: "I think Manchester United will win in the next years, they’re going to be champions of the Premier League." Pogba admitted he had earlier predicted a five-year wait — "Maybe I went a bit far, I will say in the next three years. In my opinion I think they can make it."
The timing of the claim sharpens its impact. United finished third in 2025-26 and returned to the Champions League after Michael Carrick replaced Ruben Amorim in January; Carrick’s first game was a 2-1 Manchester derby win on January 17, 2025. In the 17 Premier League matches Carrick oversaw that season, United won 12, collected 39 points and recorded a 70.6% win ratio — the figures Pogba points to when he talks about a new energy at Old Trafford.
Pogba framed that energy in plain terms. "It was good for [Carrick], very good for him and the players. They felt another energy, and that was good for them; that's what they needed," he said, and later told: "They're back in the Champions League next season, and now they're going to have to prove themselves, but for sure it was a good season for them to get back to where Manchester United belong." That return after several years away is the immediate fact underpinning his forecast.
Pogba is speaking from outside the club he left in 2022 to join Juventus, and from a season of limited playing time at Monaco: he managed six appearances for Monaco in 2025-26, starting once and playing 115 minutes in total. The former United midfielder’s prediction therefore reads as both a confident assessment of Carrick’s impact and a former-player’s appraisal of a club he once called home.
His conviction extends to United’s rivals. "If Arsenal can be champions then Manchester United will definitely be champion," Pogba said, a comment that underlines his belief that the top of the Premier League is contestable and that United can re-enter that fight. Yet there is friction in his own words: he celebrated the return to Europe while warning United must now "prove themselves" on that bigger stage. A strong 17-game run under Carrick matters; turning it into sustained seasons-long performance will be harder.
The sharp unresolved question is now public and dateable: can Carrick convert a mid-season turnaround into a title-winning project inside Pogba’s three-year deadline? United head back into the Champions League next season, which will test squad depth, consistency and whether a 17-game surge was the start of a genuine revival or a peak that must be reproduced. Pogba has put a timeline on optimism — the club and its manager must now meet it.
