'I couldn't stand it' - the Treble winner who quit Manchester United

Nicky Butt didn't even make the substitutes' bench for the 1999 FA Cup final.

He was told to forget it. You're not playing. So instead of soaking up the atmosphere at Wembley, Sir Alex Ferguson placed the midfield under strict instructions to look after himself, stay fresh and prepare for Bayern Munich in four days' time. Butt would be a certain starter in Barcelona for the Champions League final, with Roy Keane and Paul Scholes suspended – not that he was delighted about it.

"When the two lads were suspended, I was gutted," he would later say in an interview. "I wanted to play because I was picked, not by default, so I was gutted for my mates – my really good mates.

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"Their heads were down and I was sick for them. Being completely honest, I don’t think I would’ve played if those two had been able to, as the manager would have gone with his normal 4-4-2 that had served him so well that season. I don’t think people could have argued with that. I didn’t hold the midfield together that night."

Butt might not have been proud of the way he played in the Camp Nou late in May 1999, but the outcome came to define him and his United teammates. They were immortalised by the Treble success that came with two stoppage time strikes and Butt, 24 at the time, still had his whole career ahead of him. The turn of the millennium arrived and the early years of the noughties were mixed.

The signing of Juan Sebastian Veron from Lazio in 2001 for a whopping £28.1million – a British transfer record at the time – is often seen as the beginning of the end for Butt at United, but the Englishman actually outlasted the Argentine at United. The competition for places drove him on.

“There have been superstars who’ve come to this club and can’t live with it,” Butt later said. “Juan Veron comes to mind. He was the best player I’ve ever seen, except Cantona. In training he was like something I’d never seen."

Yet Butt proved the more consistent presence in United's midfield, accommodated as Ferguson switched to a 4-4-1-1 with Scholes behind Ruud van Nistelrooy. Veron was gone after two seasons.

Butt's performances earned him a call-up to the England squad for the 2002 World Cup where, once again benefitting from the absences of others, he played a star turn for Sven Goran Eriksson's side en route to the quarter-finals. He famously earned praise from Pele for the way he played.

The following years, however, saw Butt's United career unravel and he was less than impressed with the events that led to his departure. As ever in Butt's career, though, there was something to be salvaged, his trademark Gorton determination seeing him through.

Ferguson wanted to refresh his team in the period after United's success either side of 2000. After seeing Arsenal win the league in 2002 and 2004 with a team packed with international superstars from France, Brazil and the burgeoning African football scene; and then seeing Jose Mourinho's Chelsea flourish with a strong foreign flavour, Ferguson followed the trend.

Players like Kleberson, David Bellion and Eric Djemba-Djemba arrived amid great fanfare and were regularly picked ahead of Butt. It was a difficult pill to swallow for the local lad, given none of the new signings really merited regular selection.

Butt added: "Scholes and Keane were better than me but I always played in the big games because we would play a three in midfield. So I was okay. Not always dead happy but okay. But I truly couldn't stand players who were not as good as me playing instead of me, Kleberson and Djemba-Djemba – just because they had been bought. I couldn't have it so I left... but it was hard."

Butt's resolve finally broke in January 2004 as he handed in a transfer request at Old Trafford. It didn't take long for Newcastle to come calling, lodging a £2.5 million bid for the midfielder and he moved in July. At first, it didn't look to be working out for Butt at St James' Park, as injuries took their toll. He was far from a first-choice pick for manager Graeme Souness. He even spent a season on loan at Birmingham City.

Newcastle rattled through managers after Souness was sacked in February 2006 but it was from there that Butt established himself as a leader and a calming presence amid the tumult on Tyneside. He was a fulcrum of Newcastle's midfield and held the side together in tough times with good decisions on and off the pitch. Members of the Toon Army still recall Butt as a proper player and model professional who was badly needed at the time, a level head in the Newcastle dressing room.

Having been relegated in 2008/09, Butt deferred his retirement from football to help the Magpies back up the next season, sending a dig at former teammate Michael Owen who quickly departed following Newcastle's relegation, joining United. Butt saw that as the easy way out.

He added: “I was supposed to retire but I’d been part of the squad which went down, so I wanted to be part of the team that got them back up. I didn’t want to jump ship, that would have been a s***house thing to do.

"Relegation was horrible. The fans felt we didn’t care. We did. We saw people lose their jobs because budgets were slashed."

All the stars aligned for him having chosen to stay on and his glittering career got the ending it deserved. To this day, Butt says he still has a "big soft spot for Newcastle United" – and why not? His spell at the club ended with silverware in the form of the Championship title on his final day as a club footballer – minus a short-lived spell with South China. Newcastle were back with the help of Butt.

“It was a great season, loads of points, a real buzz about the city. My family flew up to watch the last game – about 50 people. They saw me lift the trophy with Alan Smith and that was my last real match in football. It was a top season.”