As part of the Class of ’92 and a key player during Manchester United’s golden era under Sir Alex Ferguson, Nicky Butt’s footballing education surpassed many of his contemporaries.
On the pitch, he put that to good use, winning six Premier League titles, three FA Cups, a Champions League and 39 England caps.
But despite this grounding in the game, Butt admits the challenges he faced after hanging up his boots were a completely different equation.
Butt on going from the pitch to the boardroom
Butt returned to Manchester United in 2012 as a coach for the reserve team and would go on to take over the club’s academy following the exit of Brian McClair in February 2016, in a role that required a very different skill set.
“When I was academy manager at Manchester United, we used to have these board meetings every six weeks,” Butt tells FourFourTwo.
“Everyone would talk about what they’d do with this player or that, none of them had kicked a football in their life or got any experience in football.
“You allow it as footballers, because everyone has got an opinion. But then when the finances come out and I try to say something, they go, “What are you f**king talking about? You haven’t got a clue, mate.”
“I ended up with a chip on my shoulder because of that and thought to myself, “Right, I’m going to do a CEO course.” I worked on that through lockdown.”
By this time Butt had become involved with Salford City alongside his fellow Class of 92 members and by the time he left Manchester United in March 2021, he was ready to put his skills to use.
“Because I’d done that course, the owner at Salford, Peter Lim, said to me, “I want you to do the CEO job here.”
“When he wants you to do something, you’ve got to do it, because he’s putting £7 million into the club a year. That’s how I became the CEO there, but I never really wanted to take on the job.”
The Good, The Bad & The Football with Scholes, Butt and McGuinness is a new weekly video podcast, available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube
