Nicky Butt has offered an insight into the reasons he left his role as Manchester United head of first-team development in March 2021.
During Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign, Butt left the club after nine years in coaching and player development roles amid a reshuffle behind the scenes.
Earlier that month, John Murtough had been appointed director of football and Darren Fletcher as technical director, and The Athletic claimed Butt quit for two reasons.
The first was that he was overlooked for both the director of football and technical director role, and the second the club’s handling of the appointments, not telling Butt in advance.
Now he has spoken to the Mail about the reasons for his exit.
Nicky Butt speaks about Manchester United exit
He said: “My vision and my philosophy and what I was brought up on at Man United didn’t go with the people running the club so it was time to leave. I am not saying I was right all the time but I knew if I didn’t leave I was going to blow. And that wouldn’t be good.
“You don’t go through seven years of coaching badges to not do it again, but I got to a fork in the road and I went the other way. I wasn’t happy at United so I left. I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I was sick of people upstairs telling me about football. If I was to tell people in the boardroom how to run a football club they would just look at me.
“But they have the right to talk about developing players? Eventually I left but before that I went and did a CEO course. I didn’t ever want to be one. I just wanted to be more in tune with a chief exec, to be more empathetic. I could have stayed for 25 years and had a nice little job with my mouth shut but it’s not me.
“The football side has to be fundamentally driven by football people. Who can tell Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Wes Brown, Darren Fletcher what’s right for Manchester United? But they do so sometimes you have to die on your sword. I have a massive bug about people who don’t know what it takes to be a footballer or do coaching badges.”
The Mail report says Butt is believed to have clashed with Murtough, and at the time, the Athletic claimed: “Butt could not countenance Murtough effectively becoming his line manager.”
United’s behind the scenes structure is still under scrutiny and last summer’s transfer window saw us chase Frenkie de Jong publicly and fruitlessly.
Antony’s arrival was also more expensive and drawn out than it needs to be and for all the improvements Erik ten Hag has brought to the club, Murtough needs to step up this summer.
In the summer, Ten Hag’s fingerprints were all over the recruitment and that has resulted in not one of the signings being a bust.
United were limited to loan deals in January, and that business has turned out as well as you can expect, but this summer has to be smoother.
Meanwhile, Butt is CEO at Salford City, and is trying to lead the club out of League 2, where they have sat since 2019.
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