Nicky Butt makes shock Salford City exit as stance on Manchester United comeback revealed

Nicky Butt has stepped down from his role as Chief Executive Officer at Salford City.

Butt was appointed as CEO at Moor Lane in October 2022, taking over from Gary Neville, but has decided 'he cannot dedicate the time required' to continue in the position.

The 49-year-old said: “Whilst I have enjoyed the day-to-day responsibilities of the Chief Executive role and discovered a huge amount about the challenges an EFL club faces away from the football pitch, I have recently realised how much I miss the coaching and development of players.

"This has increased my desire to get back into that side of the game. Over the past few months, there have been several exciting opportunities put forward to me that have put my focus back on coaching and on the grass. That being said I have always wanted to put Salford first.

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"And we now have experienced executives within the senior management team here which means that I can step away from my current duties without any impact on current operations and it will be very much business as usual.”

Butt left his role as head of first-team development at United in March 2021, which ended his nine-year association with the club following his return after his retirement as a player. The Class of '92 member played a key role in the academy during that stint and helped develop first-team players, including Dean Henderson, Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford.

The Manchester Evening News interviewed Butt last month and he played down the possibility of returning to United in some capacity. "I think no, I’ve had my time at Man United now, Scholesy has, and you move on, look at other parts of life," said Butt about a return.

"But it’s a football club we love and we’re very passionate about it. And obviously we’ve got Salford now, this is our passion and it always will be, we are owners and have committed to this club, but when you look at United, it was our dream to play for the club as kids.

"We’ve both coached there, we’ve both moved on and I never sit up at night thinking I want to go back. I’ve had some great times there and it’s someone else’s time to do it."