16/11/2011 15:35, Report by Adam Marshall
"My ultimate aim is to be a manager. That's what I want to do, whenever that happens, but I don't want to just jump into a job, take it on and not be able to do it. I want to slowly get there and be ready for it."
- Nicky Butt
Former Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt has revealed he is keen to move into management after calling time on his playing career.
The 36-year-old was was most recently with Hong Kong outfit South China but returned to England earlier this year and is currently taking his coaching badges. After hanging up his boots, the ex-England international is determined to learn from the best at Carrington as he looks to make his mark in the coaching world.
"I've started my badges now and am getting the hours in," Butt explained to ManUtd.com. "I'll get assessed in the next five or six months.
"I go to Carrington a lot and just watch, I don't really take any of the sessions. I watch what the coaches are doing and how they speak to the kids. Ask any player and the knowledge is in their head. The difficult part is getting the point across and doing it clearly. That is what I've got to learn.
"I've been fortunate to play for a lot of coaches who are great at projecting their voice and getting the point across. Steve McClaren, Carlos Queiroz, Brian Kidd and Eric Harrison... all were great coaches."
Showing the same attitude that made him such an influence on the pitch, Butt is clearly serious about his intention to remain in the game.
"I know for a fact management is what I want to do," he asserted. "Whether I'll be good at it is another thing. We'll see. There were rumours about Oldham [in summer 2010] and someone asked if I would be interested but I never was as it was too soon for me. I wanted to have a year away from it, spend time with my family and go away with the kids in the school holidays. It's been great but I think I feel now I'm ready to do something.
"The thing is you don't know what you want to be until you try it. After I quit football, I thought I'd try TV but I didn't like it. If I didn't try it, I would never have known. Gary Neville, I felt, was obviously certain to go straight into management but instead he's working as a pundit on Sky Sports and he's got a three-year deal there. So you never know what's around the corner for you. You've got to be prepared to get as much as knowledge as you can, with football or whatever it is you want to do, and see what comes of it."
As well as learning to be a coach, Butt is keeping busy in other aspects of his life.
"I'm still doing some of the ambassador work for United, going to places all around the world with the club's commercial partners," he told us.
"I'm also working for MUTV, spending a lot of time with my family and learning to ski - I was not able to do that before when I was a player.
"There are a lot of things I'm able to do now but my ultimate aim is to be a manager. That's what I want to do, whenever that happens, but I don't want to just jump into a job, take it on and not be able to do it. I want to slowly get there and be ready for it."
source: Manutd
