Manchester United hero Nicky Butt has issued a damning assessment of his former club – timed just as Ruben Amorim’s side limped to a home draw against Premier League strugglers Wolves.
After enjoying a profitable Boxing Day outing against Newcastle which saw the Portuguese manager shake up his trusted playing philosophies in favour of a new formation to beat the Magpies 1-0, Wolves were able to add a third point to their woeful total as Man United let their lead slip away.
But in his comments issued just hours before kick-off at Old Trafford, Butt was steadfast in his belief that Man United’s problems could not be fixed overnight.
‘For me, it’s fundamentally that the club is rotten from the bottom up at the minute,’ Butt told FourFourTwo.
‘If you brought prime Sir Alex Ferguson back in, he wouldn’t be able to turn it around straight away, it would still take time.
‘If you put Pep Guardiola in there, or Jurgen Klopp, it wouldn’t work either.
Man United legend Nicky Butt does not believe that a manager of any calibre, let alone Ruben Amorim, would be able to save his ‘rotten’ former club
‘Ultimately, I think the players we’re buying and the players that we’re able to buy aren’t at the level we used to have, so it’s about accepting the fact that it’s going to take five to eight years in order to get the club back to anywhere near winning the Premier League.
‘It’s been a s***show.’
Manchester United have gone without a Premier League trophy since the departure of Ferguson nearly 13 years ago, with many of the problems of the intervening years placed at the door of the Glazer family ownership, and issues within the United hierarchy.
But challenges inside the club have not been easily fixed following the arrival of new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who took control of football operations with his February 2024 buy-in.
Amorim, who was instated by the new ownership last November following a disastrous final few months of former manager Erik ten Hag at the start of the 2024-25 season, has thus far struggled to reverse the club’s fortunes from the dugout.
Man United limped to a dismal 15th-place Premier League finish at the end of the last campaign, and ended their term without silverware after losing their Europa League title to fellow top-flight big beasts Tottenham.
After a full pre-season and the recruitment of a number of his transfer targets including Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, United have experienced stirrings of promise.
But by dropping points at home, Man United missed out on the opportunity to leapfrog Chelsea into fifth and temporarily go level on points with fourth-placed Liverpool ahead of their meeting with Leeds on New Year’s Day.
Amorim was open after the final whistle as he admitted that Man United had few ideas against their rock-bottom opponents.
‘We struggled in all the game,’ he said. ‘We had a lack of creation.
‘When you play Casemiro and (Manuel) Ugarte in the middle, you know it is different from when you have Bruno (Fernandes) or Kobbie (Mainoo).
‘We just need to recover our players from Afcon. But we didn’t use that excuse against Newcastle, and we are not going to use it today.’
