Nicky Butt reveals Sir Alex Ferguson refused to allow him to play for England

By Jamie Spencer

Sitting alongside friends and former teammates Phil Neville and Ryan Giggs at the Soccerex Convention in Manchester, the retired midfielder said, "[Sir Alex] never pulled you out faking an injury. It was a case of 'You've got an England game coming up. You're not going' and that was it."

Explaining the circumstances, Butt said, "At one time there was 8 or 9 of us going (for an England friendly) and he'd pull 1 or 2 out and they could have the other 6 or 7. He'd pull out different ones the next time a friendly came up, but he was honest with the FA about it."

Speaking more generally about England's chances of winning major tournaments, he categorically stated "We've always had one or two top players but I just don't think we're good enough", suggesting the key to international success is continuity.

"If you look at all the teams who are successful, they stay together for 8, 9, 10 years, England's always chopping and changing. 'Who's the new good player today? We'll play him'. [Fabian] Delph, who played the other day, did well, but in the next game will he play? There's never any consistency, look at Spain they've been together since they were 15 years of age."

Butt also confirmed that Manchester United are still working as hard as ever to bring new youngsters through the club's academy despite the arrival of more than £200m of established first team players since last summer.

The 39-year-old currently serves as the Under-19 team manager and addressed recent fears that concessions in player development were being made to focus on bringing in the likes of Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao.

Using the example of Danny Welbeck's departure to Arsenal he explained, "[Danny's] through and through Manchester United, he's been there since he was 7 or 8 years of age. But things happen, Danny wasn't playing in the position he wanted to be in.

"I think it's a case of being fair to the player and fair to the club. Danny has England credentials and wants to keep his place. [He and the manager] have had a chat about moving on and that's what he did."

He continued, "It's not a case of giving up on youngsters or the academy, it's a case of getting the club back to where it needs to be, winning. That's the priority now and they've brought in a manager who's a winner, who's proven.

"But [Louis van Gaal] said himself it's a short term thing. He's signed a three year deal and he's only going to be here for that length of time and for now the priority is to win things. Unfortunately the rest of it takes a back seat, but there's people still underneath that [visible first team] blanket, working hard in all the hours God sends to develop the young kids."

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