‘Two rough lads like us becoming Manchester United legends? I’d have said, “No chance, you’re taking the piss.” We got lucky’ Paul Scholes on becoming an Old Trafford great with Nicky Butt

Manchester United’s Class of ’92 occupy a unique place in modern football history.

There have been few cohorts that have gone from the promise of an FA Youth Cup victory to the top of European football, with that group of local lads going into Red Devils folklore.

Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt were two key members of that group and of Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest sides and even now remain typically grounded about what they were able to achieve with their local side.

Scholes and Butt on becoming Manchester United legends

“I’d have said, ‘No chance, you’re taking the piss,’” Scholes tells FourFourTwo when asked if people would still have been talking about their achievements more than 40 years after they first met.

“Two rough lads like us? We got lucky.”

That is a view echoed by Scholes’ fellow midfielder Butt, who realises just how fortunate they were to get the breaks needed to succeed.

“Scholesy and all the lads I played with were brilliant footballers and would have had a career, but we hit the jackpot,” Butt adds. “We had the perfect owner too – Martin Edwards doesn’t get near enough credit for what he did with the club.”

"David Gill, too,” adds Scholes.

Butt continues: “We had an unbelievable owner who allowed an unbelievable manager to play kids, have bad games and get beaten.

“They allowed us time to come through and there were perfect older pros in the team who were proper men, proper leaders. And the coaches we had as kids, too – Brian Kidd, Nobby Stiles, Jim Ryan, Eric Harrison, then obviously the manager.

“It was just the perfect storm. We were very lucky.”

The Good, The Bad & The Football with Scholes, Butt and McGuinness is a new weekly video podcast, available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube