Fergie hopes to keep Butt

Under-pressure Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson has admitted he will be disappointed if Nicky Butt decides to quit Old Trafford this week.

Birmingham have already lodged a £5m (€7.3m) bid for the transfer-listed midfielder, while Middlesbrough are expected to follow suit before the transfer window shuts next Saturday night.

Yet, while Ferguson understands Butt’s frustrations at his lack of first-team opportunities this season, he would happily allow the 28-year-old to remain a valued member of his squad.

Butt was given the honour of captaining United in the 3-0 FA Cup fourth-round win at Northampton yesterday and Ferguson has not given up hope he can be persuaded to stay.

“I know he is frustrated and I know it is difficult for him because he has the European Championships coming up for England in the summer,” Ferguson told MUTV.

“I understand all these things but it will still be disappointing if he does go.”

Butt played the midfield anchor role that has been filled so successfully this season by Phil Neville as United strode into the last 16 with the minimum of fuss.

Despite lacking seven senior players due to suspension, injury or squad rotation, the visitors were always in command at Sixfields even though Diego Forlan saw his penalty saved by goalkeeper Lee Harper after just two minutes.

All three United goals were close-range affairs. Mikael Silvestre put the visitors in front after 31 minutes after Naylor had been startled by Paul Reid playing the ball at him.

Chris Hargreaves netted an own goal two minutes after the re-start, before Forlan finally found the target, finishing off Darren Fletcher’s nod-down midway through the second period.

“Manchester United can be too good for teams in their own league sometimes, so we can be proud of our efforts,” said Cobblers boss Colin Calderwood.

“What disappointed me was we weren’t beaten by special goals. The first two were really scrappy and could have been prevented.

“I hope my team learn some lessons about movement, both on and off the ball. United keep things simple and their passing is very quick.

“At some stage in the competition we were bound to meet a team that had too much class for us, and they were probably it.”

While the victory gives United a place in today’s fifth-round draw, it will not deflect too much attention away from the bitter dispute at the club.

The dispute between Ferguson and major shareholder John Magnier over the stud rights to stallion Rock of Gibraltar has spilled over into club business, with the Irishman writing to United chairman Roy Gardner demanding talks over the manager’s new contract be put on hold until a full investigation of recent transfer dealings has taken place.

Despite a stream of negative publicity in the last three weeks over the moves that saw Tim Howard, Kleberson, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Bellion join this summer, club officials have continued to insist they are doing nothing wrong.

They look set to defy Magnier by confirming Ferguson has signed a new one-year rolling contract within the next week but there remains the possibility of an emergency general meeting being called at which Gardner and chief executive David Gill could be forced to answer a number of embarrassing questions.

The 1,200 United supporters who attended yesterday’s game left no doubt as to where their loyalties lay as they sang of their devotion to Ferguson.

And Olivier Houston, spokesman for the Shareholders United lobby group, was equally pointed.

“Sir Alex is undoubtedly one of the club’s and the company’s best assets,” he said.

“It would be a disgrace if personal score-settling, bullying and dirty tricks were allowed to win the day.

“SU has always pursued an agenda of genuine concern about all aspects of good corporate governance – but what we’ve witnessed these last few weeks is simply mud slinging as part of a blatant and shoddy assassination plot.

“If gamblers and currency speculators – or media moguls and oil tycoons, for that matter – were renowned as paragons of virtue it would be less difficult to swallow when the plc’s multi-millionaire shareholders start throwing their weight around.”