Butt: I'd love to repeat the Class of '92

It is almost 25 years to the day since you made your debut. Do you feel old?
It does yeah, but it goes so quickly. I remember Steve Bruce saying to us when we were 17, ‘enjoy it because it will be gone like that’, and I remember thinking ‘yeah right, I’m only 17, I’ve got the world ahead of me’. He was dead right – as we’re sat here 25 years later and it’s gone so quickly.

What do you remember of your debut?
I actually don’t remember it that much. Honestly. The manager said to me, ‘are your parents going to the game’, and I said ‘no I don’t think so’, and he said ‘make sure they’re going’. Then I realised about half an hour later why he’d said that to me… I wasn’t the brightest in them days! I don’t remember that much about it though. I remember coming on and I replaced Bryan Robson, who was my hero – that was the big thing for me.

When you bring your kids to Old Trafford, do you see it through their eyes?
I love taking the kids to Old Trafford. You look at them and see their faces lighting up at the size of the stadium and seeing their heroes – it’s a really nice feeling. It takes you back to when you were a kid. I was there with Giggsy and Phil the other day – and that’s what it’s about – it’s football, it’s what everyone wants to do when you’re a kid, or certainly what I wanted to do, and our kids are probably no different until they get to a certain age and they realise how much work it takes. I love bringing my kids here and it’s certainly a massive part of what I do with them, bringing them here, and sharing that experience with them – and telling them that actually, I used to play on that pitch.

As local lads in the team, did you always understand the historic rivalries more than the foreign lads who came in?
We were quite lucky with the lads that came in, in our time. We had a little Scandinavian group, a few French lads come in. But what they all did that was important was buy into the club straight away, buy into the city straight away, their families bought into the city and went to restaurants and got  to really know the culture of Manchester. Us lads maybe helped them to do that, and it was important that they knew what the Man United and Liverpool game was like, and that it wasn’t just a game, and it was more than a game. Because on Monday morning people go into work and give each other stick, you cannot lose those games, and obviously sometimes you do because that’s football, but you have to go in there and play it as more than just a match. It was up to the manager to calm us down and play it as if it was just a normal match, but deep down we knew, in our bellies, that it was more for the fans and the city – it was more than just a football game. We had really good squad members from all over the country and the world that bought into that straight away and it was important. That was a credit to them.

What was it about the six of you that made you gel together so well?
Take Ryan out of it for a minute because he was already a first team player. It was a case of one week Scholesy was the superstar, and people saying he was the next big thing and being on the back pages, and the next week it would be Becks and the next week it would be Gary. And then it would be Phil and then, once in a blue moon, it might be me. That’s what it was – it was shared between us. I can imagine coming through on your own, it being really, really hard for a lad at Man United – because it’s not a normal club, it’s the biggest club in the world. The spotlight’s on you even more so we were lucky we came through together to play for the biggest club in the world, and we came through knowing each other and about each other from the age of 12 or 13. And we ended up being really good mates, in an environment that looks pathetic, when you look at the giant training grounds they have now. It was really humble.

But those times from 16 to 21 or 22 were the best times. It wasn’t when you could go and buy any car or house that you wanted or go shopping and spend whatever money you want. It was when you were on £29.50 a week, and getting the bus to Manchester from Salford – that was certainly for me – the best time of my career. That’s what helped us and galvanised us as a group. Obviously Becks had a tough time at the World cup and he came back to his second family and we helped him through it, and then I had a bad time and they all helped me through it. The environment was so small and tight. The limelight got shared between us.

Do you think the young English players do get put under more pressure now?
The press and the spotlight of social media means there’s miles more pressure for them now. Also, Manchester has got a lot bigger. When we were kids we used to go out every Tuesday night if we didn’t have a game, and you could have a good time and you wouldn’t be out all over the papers as if you were doing something wrong. Because at the end of the day you’re young lads and you want to go out and have a bit of fun, and you can do that at the right times and we certainly did that. I think it’s unfortunate they can’t do that anymore – they just can’t.

Does it feel strange that you can look back on your career now?
It’s strange, but it’s also nice because we’ve had our time and we’ve had our day. It’s a really nice compliment seeing all these fans who still know you and like you – it’s nice. Because our time’s gone and there are other players that have got the limelight and rightly so.  

Who used to get you in the most trouble back then?
To be honest the quiet one was always the worst - Scholesy got away with it all the time. He was the worst. Ryan used to get caught all the time too, like me.

Can the Class of ’92 ever happen again?
Yeah, if you look at the squad now there’s probably five or six from the academy – Marcus, Jesse, Scott Mctominay, Axel Tuanzebe, and a couple of lads who are out on loan. But to get five or six from the same team, it is going to be very difficult with modern football. I hope it does because we’ve got a lot of talent but for it to happen it’s a brave, brave man to put six or seven in a first team when you can get sacked after just three months in charge, so whether it happens again – it would have to be the right manager, the right board, and the right club. At the moment, other than us, I can only think of Tottenham that would do that at the moment. That’s my job at the minute to get players up to the first team so the manager can pick them and help them win things.

How does it feel when a player goes up to the first team?
The ambition of the club is always to push them and challenge them, and whether it’s a 12-year-old playing in the 14s or a 14-year-old playing in the 16s, it is about pushing them out of their comfort zone. You’ve got to bring them back to their own age group at times after you’ve put them in the reserves or the youth team to give them a taste, but the club has always been about pushing players and about helping them reach their potential. Whether it was when Ryan was in charge or any manager that’s taken players up to the first team, it’s a good thing for the club. It is massive, because some of these lads have been at the club since they were seven, so someone like Marcus has probably had 15 different coaches and every single one of them have played a part in where he is.

Finally, what’s your standout memory?
The one that sticks in my mind is… everyone says about us winning and winning, but the first season we went in we lost to West Ham on Saturday and then in the FA Cup against Everton a week later. I remember sitting on the pitch thinking ‘don’t cry, don’t cry, dad will kill me’, so I was holding it in. The manager went past me, tapped me on the head and said ‘don’t let it happen again’. That stuck with me. I knew I never wanted to feel like that again. I wanted to go on and win things. It was an important message from him, and I’m sure the lads never wanted to feel how we did in that week again. The highlight was obviously that week of the Treble, but those words really stuck with me.