Head of coaching at Manchester United's youth academy, Nicky Butt has been given a very important role at the club he loves, and it's easy to see why when you hear the man explain his views on the treatment of young players in modern football.
Butt was appointed to his current role as part of a top-to-bottom shakeup at Old Trafford, and has already earned the trust of Jose Mourinho as we learned from a recent interview he conducted with The Times.
The 'Class of 92' graduate gave some fascinating insights as to why young players are struggling to break into the first team at clubs all over England, but first of all he outlined why Marcus Rashford didn't have that problem, and it's because he has a great head on his shoulders.
He still parks his car out the front, not round the back with all the first-team players. He comes in, looks you in the eye, talks to you, listens, asks questions. He sits next to his mates, eats his dinner with them when he can, but obviously has to eat with the first team sometimes. If you gave him £8 million, he wouldn’t get carried away.
Marcus will get opportunities in the first team because he’s that good. Lee Sharpe was the best player in the country, as a youngster, but you couldn’t hold Ryan Giggs back much longer. Here it’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial or whoever’s up top. If Marcus keeps doing what he’s doing with his pace and directness, it’s impossible to hold him back.
Interestingly, he also name-dropped Adnan Januzaj as a player he would be very disappointed to see never return to Man United, as opposed to the likes of Paddy McNair, Tyler Blackett, Donald Love, and Will Keane, all promising youngsters who have recently left the club on permanent deals.
They’re really good lads and will have a good life, nice houses but they weren’t at the level for United. It doesn’t hurt me as much as, say, if Adnan Januzaj went and never came back. He’s got the level to play for United and win leagues and Champions Leagues. Maybe he’s not been as dedicated, a case of too much too soon, a millionaire now.
This point sparked Butt going into a fascinating tangent on the coddling of children in modern society, and the impact that can have on young footballers.
He even used an anecdote of a Man United youngster having someone call around to his house enquiring about his interest in another man's girlfriend due to publishing his address online.
I see players in our academy and they can’t move. Our lads don’t know how to fall, roll, and you should see the amount of injuries we get from popped shoulders or their arms. I probably fell out of a tree 15 times and never hurt myself. I don’t think my son’s ever climbed a tree.
Body mechanics lose so much when you’re not climbing trees, not playing basketball, cricket, rugby. I played rugby, cricket, football, basketball. This might sound bizarre but we’ve had a guy come in from the circus, telling the kids how to do spinning plates, jumping through hoops, circus tricks to get their biomechanics working. We had a free runner, the ‘parkour’ lads who jump over buildings, set up a course.
I’m a softie parent. I don’t let my kids go anywhere. My daughter’s 12, I don’t think she’d be able to cross a road. The whole life now is middle class: all kids have iPads and PlayStations. Social media’s a massive problem. We had a player who put his address on Facebook and gets a knock at the door from people asking why he’s chatting up this girlfriend. We reiterate to them every six weeks about what to do and not do on social media.
If you’re a 19-year-old going into United’s first team, and you’re not able to stand up to the bigger pros, be a man, respect them but tell them what you think is right, you have no chance of surviving. We should put them in the reserves for four or five months, polish the diamond before the first team.
But it's not all easy street for young players coming into the game, as Butt also spoke on the pressure facing these young lads that comes from the parents who are so obsessed with protecting them.
Everyone’s looking for excuses in life. Ninety per cent of the parents are good parents but there’s 10 per cent repeatedly on the phone to me, repeatedly questioning the coaching, asking why their son’s not in this team. It angers me. There’s that much money in football that it can change the family’s life; a 17-year-old lad could be carrying the whole weight of the family on their shoulders. There has to be a rule if you’re taking money off a club for your kid to be a scholar then let them get on with the job and develop them as players and human beings.
It was a fascinating interview and a really refreshing take from someone is still very much active in football.
You don't hear many youth coaches being highly critical of the ways that young players are coached, but Nicky Butt is not a man to hide behind clichés and should be praised for speaking the truth, and exactly what is on his mind.
You can read the full interview over on TheTimes.co.uk
