Butt dismisses talk of decline
13/05/2004 - 10:22:37Nicky Butt insists Manchester United are not going backwards despite their season of under-achievement.
The long-serving midfielder accepts United have performed well below expectations this term, with an FA Cup final appearance against Millwall next weekend hardly balancing out failures in the Barclaycard Premiership and Champions League.
Yet past experience tells Butt that the Red Devils thrive in adversity. The three previous times United have lost their Premiership title they have claimed it back the following year.
And England midfielder Butt believes the Old Trafford outfit will make a forceful bid to reclaim their championship in 12 months’ time.
“This club will never go backwards,” he told MUTV.
“We have underachieved in the Premiership and Champions League this season but we can get back to the levels we are capable of.
“The age of the playing squad is still young, even though we have so much experience and with the manager here we will only ever go forward.
“Obviously, we can only finish third now even if we win our final game at Aston Villa on Saturday but we have an FA Cup final coming up and we are determined to get on top of our game before then.”
Ferguson has already ruled out any panic buying in the transfer market this summer, although it seems sure there will be some movement as the wily Scot looks to tweak his squad.
Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney have both been mentioned as potential arrivals, while speculation that Real Madrid are about to launch a £40m (€59.6m) bid for Ruud van Nistelrooy refuses to go away – despite the Dutchman’s firm assertion that he is going nowhere.
Butt’s future has also been questioned, even though the 29-year-old has previously claimed he was happy with his decision not to leave United when he was placed on the transfer list in January, frustrated at his lack of first-team opportunities.
Birmingham boss Steve Bruce was one of the men interested in securing the services of a player who is certain to be in Sven Goran Eriksson’s England squad for Euro 2004 this summer, although the avenue to St Andrews may have been closed by the reportedly imminent arrival of Muzzy Izzet from Leicester.
Yet no matter who eventually leaves Old Trafford this summer, Butt has been around long enough to know the club will continue to prosper.
It was the departure of Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis that gave the Gorton-born star his own chance a decade ago, since when Eric Cantona, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and David Beckham have all moved on.
“Big players have left here in the past but Manchester United is like a train - it just keeps moving on,” he said.
“We still have a chance of winning a trophy this season and while we wouldn’t look upon the FA Cup as a replacement for what happened in the league and Champions League, it is a special tournament and a game we are looking forward to being involved in.”
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