One Direction
Members of the music group One Direction (L-R) Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayne Malik, Liam Payne and Harry Styles pose for photographers during a photocall for their film 'One Direction; This is Us' in London August 19 2013. REUTERS/SUZANNE PLUNKETT

One Direction are going to split in two years tops, Simon Cowell predicted.

The “X Factor” creator believes that the UK boyband will call it quits after a making couple of albums more, as expected of all boybands in the past.

“Bands don’t stay together forever. I think they will make at least two more albums together and they are in the middle of one right one,” the 54-year-old music mogul told the Daily Star.

It won’t happen this year, though. Cowell thinks that Harry Styles, who has been touted as the lead singer of the group, will wait for a while before going solo.

“No, I don’t think that is going to happen for a while. Eventually I am sure they all will.”

Cowell was perhaps referring to other boybands in the past that have split after one of their most popular members decided to pursue a solo career.

Take That is a good example. The ‘90s English pop group had dominated charts and awards shows, but when Robbie Williams split in 1995, the four remaining members crumbled and split up as well a few months later.

If the One Direction boys are to split up after a few years, it would work out well for Cowell. He signed the boys through his Syco Records label, but it appears he is already grooming another boyband that will conquer tweens’ hearts.

In “The X Factor” UK, Cowell has put together eight solo acts to form a new all-male group, hoping that they will achieve the same success as One Direction.

“The boys were the strongest category by far at boot camp and it really hurt the judges to say goodbye to so much talent,” a source told The Sun. “In the end, they decided to make the extra boys into one big group. Between the eight of them they’ve got everything they need to be a success.”

And to be as successful as One Direction, the new group was told to find an identity they can all agree on to become friends.

“One Direction might have been manufactured, but it worked out because they were friends and they went in as equals and none of them have huge egos. This new band needs to find the same thing.”

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