Manchester United Predictions for the 2026-27 Season
Manchester United step into the Michael Carrick era with expectation already roaring in from the outside. The new Premier League season properly kicks off for them on Saturday lunchtime at the MKM Stadium against Hull City, and the debate has started long before a ball is kicked.
Carrick’s interim spell last season dragged United back into the conversation. Third place in 2025-26, a style that felt modern and sharp, and enough momentum for the club to hand him the job permanently in May. Now comes the hard part: proving it wasn’t a short-term surge.
Five former United players have already nailed their colours to the mast over where Carrick’s side will finish in 2026-27. The optimism is there. So is the caution.
Ben Foster: Same again, please
Ben Foster backed United to make the top four last season. They did. He’s doubling down.
“All right. It’s Arsenal, then it’s Chelsea, then it’s Man United, then it’s Liverpool,” he said on the Fozcast podcast, laying out his predicted top four with little fuss.
He repeated it for emphasis: “Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool. We will see come the end of the season, lads.”
For Foster, Carrick keeps United in the Champions League places, but not yet at the very top of the pile. Third again. Progress, but not the finished article.
Nicky Butt: Carrick to launch a title challenge
Nicky Butt goes bolder.
The former United midfielder believes Carrick can push the club into a genuine title race, even if he slightly tripped over his own order when speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast.
“Liverpool, City, Man United, Arsenal,” he said when asked for his top four.
He then clarified his thinking: “So, I do think, obviously, we’re all agreeing with Arsenal [being top], but I think Man United will come second.”
Strip away the confusion in the wording and Butt’s stance is clear: he sees United as runners-up. A side ready to jump from top-four regulars to serious contenders under Carrick.
Paul Scholes: Progress, but not there yet
Paul Scholes, another of the ‘Class of ‘92’, is more restrained.
“United [in third place] for me,” he said on The Good, The Bad & The Football show.
His concern is blunt and familiar to anyone who has watched United in recent years. “I still think they’ve got a lot of work to do to… I think they need to strengthen. Now, look, possibly they could do better, but I just don’t think the centre-halves are good enough.”
Scholes sees the structure improving, the direction right, but the spine still short of title-winning quality. Third place again, in his eyes, would reflect both progress and the limits of the current squad.
Michael Owen: United fall just short
Michael Owen, sat alongside Butt and Scholes on The Good, The Bad & The Football, pushed United out of the Champions League picture entirely.
The former United and Liverpool striker has Carrick’s side finishing fifth. No top four, no title tilt, just outside looking in.
It’s a harsher verdict and underlines the split in opinion: some see United rising, others still view them as a step behind the league’s elite.
Wayne Rooney: Squeezing into fourth
Wayne Rooney, the club’s all-time leading scorer, lands somewhere in the middle.
In his BBC Sport predictions, Rooney backed United to claim fourth place in the 2026-27 campaign. Not the leap Butt is forecasting, not the stumble Owen fears, but a solid foothold in the top four.
Fourth would keep Carrick in the Champions League and buy him more time to shape this side in his image.
From second to fifth, the range of calls from those who know the club best tells its own story. Carrick has changed the mood. The question now is simple and brutal: was last season the start of something, or as good as it gets?
