Nicky Butt interview: Scott McTominay proved Man Utd wrong but even Class of ’92 would struggle in this environment | Football News

Wrong for Man Utd to let McTominay goClass of ’92 would not have made it nowHow club moved away from its philosophyAcademy record could become a sham

It is four years ago now that Nicky Butt made headlines for his claim that Declan Rice is no better than Scott McTominay. While Butt acknowledges that the England midfielder has improved since then, there is more respect on McTominay’s name now too.

“When I said it, I believed it,” Butt tells Sky Sports. “And about three or four months later, Declan Rice came on again with England, and I am like, well, I have made myself a little bit foolish there.” Not so much now. “Scott has gone away and proved it.”

McTominay was the driving force behind Napoli’s Serie A title win last season, scoring a dozen goals and winning the competition’s player of the year award. It has made a mockery of the notion that he was not good enough to be a Manchester United player.

“Scott is an amazing person. He is a really great lad.” Butt, who made 387 appearances for United, including one in the 1999 Champions League final, knows him well. He was an academy coach at United when McTominay broke through. “He had it tough,” he adds.

“He had a lot of growing problems, a lot of injuries.” That growth spurt has been well documented. “Back in the day, he was only small and slight.” But his great strength was his resolve. “His determination and his drive, you could not ever question,” says Butt.

“Scott would be the first to sit here and say he was not the most gifted and talented footballer on the planet, which I wasn’t, Roy Keane wasn’t. But when you’ve got that kind of drive, which Scott has and obviously Roy had, you get yourself through the levels.

“And that is what Scott has done. Scott had the disappointment of leaving Man Utd, I felt that was wrong to let him go because he is one of your own, he would run through brick walls for you, a Manchester United fan from a family of Manchester United fans.”

McTominay returns to Manchester this week to play against City in the Champions League on Thursday. United themselves are not in European competition. “It is the same old thing,” says Butt. “You don’t know what you have got until you’ve not got it.”

He adds: “He is a god in Napoli now. You go there and his picture is on all the walls. It is great. He has earned all that. He has grafted, worked hard, had knockbacks and fair play to him he is a player now. If he’d stayed, he might have stagnated and never got better.”

‘We would have had a nightmare now’

Indeed, Butt believes that even the famous Class of ’92 would have struggled in the current climate. He made his Premier League debut alongside Bryan Robson in midfield with Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister behind him, Brian McClair and Mark Hughes ahead.

“Everybody talks about our group,” says Butt of a crop of talent that included Paul Scholes and David Beckham. “If we had been brought into this environment now, you would never have heard of us. We would have played seven, eight, nine or 10 games.”

Why is that? “We got brought into a football team that was successful with world-class players but more importantly world-class professionals, good men. They made us, really. Trust me, it was more the fact that we had professionals around,” he explains.

“When you come into a football club it is hard enough to put one young lad into a team. If you have not got real men to look after you then you will struggle. If we had got into this group now together, we would not have survived, we would have had a nightmare.”

‘Other academies upped their game’

Speaking ahead of the launch of his new podcast with Scholes, The Good, The Bad and The Football, United’s ongoing malaise is a recurring theme of the conversation. Having worked in United’s academy between 2012 and 2021, Butt saw this unfolding up close.

It remains a source of frustration. “The worst thing you can do is bury your head in the sand,” he says of City’s rise to become the destination of choice in Manchester. “Kids saw other clubs coming to them with better facilities. It was a massive pull for them.

“All over the country, academies upped their game. At Manchester United, we got a bit lacklustre, thinking we were the biggest and the best and did not have to go out and do all the things that the others were doing, but you have to stay on top of your game.”

‘I did not agree with the idea’

Given his prominent role, could he not have arrested that slide himself? “You’re a small cog in a big machine.” In 2021, he walked away. “There were things happening at the club where there were people with different philosophies to what I was brought up on.”

An example. The separation between the academy and the senior players annoyed him. “Young kids are moving further away from the first team,” he says. “I did not agree with the idea that the first team gets everything there and everyone else is on the other side.”

It was far removed from his own experience as a young player. “When I was coming into the first team, I knew Brian Robson. I knew Mark Hughes. I knew Peter Schmeichel. I knew Brian McClair. All these superstars that you have on your wall,” he says.

“Three years earlier I was at school. But I knew them because I was having dinner with them every day. I was training with them every day. And there was one big family. And when you go into the first team, they know your name and you know how they play.

“I could not ever imagine playing in front of 75,000 people and not even knowing who these people are. I think they have got to be a lot more together, a lot tighter. And my way, I felt, was changing. That was because other people were coming in from outside.”

‘It is a bit of a sham’

If the sense is of Butt being wistful about United’s past, do not mistake him for a sentimentalist. His take on the prospect of the club’s proud record of having an academy graduate in every squad for 88 years and counting might just surprise.

“I’m a bit 50-50 with that. Unless you are bringing players in who are going to play for the club for years, it’s pointless because anybody can put someone on the bench from the academy. They don’t have to be good enough, it is just to keep the tradition going.

“If it is someone who you are putting on like Kobbie Mainoo or some of the other names that you can throw about, where you know they are a real player, an international who is going to improve the team and be there for the longevity, then that’s brilliant.

“But if you are just going to bring in little Billy from the under-16s, who is nowhere near the level and you are just doing it to keep the tradition, it can be false, that. It is a bit of a sham. You have to be brave enough to go against the tradition. It will happen one day.”

United’s future remains a fascination. And Butt, one of their own, is not optimistic that Benjamin Sesko can change their fortunes. He argues that it is not fair to expect too much of him. “I hope he goes and gets the golden boot this year but it is highly unlikely.”

He is more encouraged by the investment in the training ground. “The fundamentals of any club have to be solid.” But how long until the title returns? “That is the big question, isn’t it? My heart says one thing,” concludes Butt. “My head says something else.”