Butt Reveals Ferguson Refuse To Let Him Play For England

Nicky Butt Reveals Sir Alex Ferguson Refused to Allow Him to Play for England.

Nicky Butt has revealed that he might have ended up with more than the 39 England caps he won during a seven year international career had it not been for the insistence of Sir Alex Ferguson.

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.