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According to Nicky Butt, United could have been more successful during his first forays into Europe under Sir Alex Ferguson if the young people from Old Trafford had played in the UEFA Youth League when they were in the ranks, then that they were in the ranks.
The 92-year-old graduates are now under 19 and have booked a place in the Youth League Round of 16 with a 6-2 crash of the Young Boys at Leigh Sports Village on Tuesday.
Butt thinks that the Youth League has a real advantage in getting United's youth into the European competition and that it would have benefited him and the other stars of the club's academy before their first efforts on the continent.
After winning the title in 1992/93, United had first struggled in Europe before mastering it in the late '90s.
"We played European teams in pre-season tournaments, but it would have been helpful to do it more regularly," Butt said.
"It took us six years to get used to European football and Sir Alex's reproaches, because we were not used to it, we were not used to diving, touching people and winning. a penalty. .
"For us, as a club, it's a huge advantage because I will not get used to it without this competition.
"When we were growing up, we did not have this competition, you were playing against your local teams and your national teams, and then you get into European football and get started, which makes you think that it's completely different. and you have no experience of that. " . "
Butt believes that the way European matches are refereed is one of the biggest learning curves and he points to an incident against Juventus at Old Trafford that has cost him an example.
"I remember the first time I lived it and I just touched (Alessandro) Del Piero slightly in the box, he fell and got a penalty for Juve at Old Trafford," he said. -he declares.
"You do not want to learn like that, you have to learn here, make your mistakes here, realize that you can not do that, you do not want to do it at Old Trafford in an important game of the Champions League."
Aidan Barlow scored from the penalty spot against Young Boys and the 18-year-old said he had learned a lot from the Youth League matches against the Swiss teams Juventus and Valencia.
"We do not know much about the team because, of course, it is a foreign team and its players come from everywhere, so they have different types of players," he said. explained the midfielder born in Salford.
"I think it's great, obviously there are a lot of people, like in Valencia, the atmosphere is good, and it's really a very good experience."
Foreign opponents also posed some new problems to United's youth. Barlow and his teammates are often forced to find their own solution in the field.
"Against the Young Boys, we were facing quite a tough training, I think they were playing like a 4-2-4, so it's pretty hard to handle," he said.
"You have to try to get by during the match and I think we had a bit of trouble in the first half, but in the second half we got together and we managed to overcome the problem."
United will complete its Youth League group stage campaign against Valencia in Spain in two weeks before resuming after the round of 16.
Although Butt is a big fan of the competition, he admits it's not perfect. The Young Boys match starting at 1 pm, there were only a few hundred people at Leigh Sports Village.
The former UN midfielder would like UEFA to help finance the transportation and accommodation of lower level clubs, thus allowing them to stay one more night, meetings taking place in evening.
"They have to sit down and make things better, because the environment is good, the fields are generally good, the teams you are playing against are really good, but there is no one in the crowd so how can you get used to it? " he said.
"I would get a little money from UEFA to put it in a pot in order to finance tier two or three teams, not us, nor the big hitters, but the smaller teams that clashed a day earlier and who played the game last night, play here in the spotlight at night and a few thousand people.
"You need more people in the ground, it's obvious."
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