Butt Confident Of New Summer Arrivals

Head of Academy Nicky Butt has confirmed Manchester United expect to welcome more young players this summer.

The Reds finalised the transfer of Under-18 defender Matthew Olosunde recently and, after Louis van Gaal suggested the club's persuasive argument over routes into the first team would lead to other arrivals during the close season, Butt has stressed a desire to compete for the top youth talents across the continent.

Although it will only be a case of adding to the existing talent at the club, the former midfielder is confident the youth ranks can be swelled in time for the start of the 2016/17 campaign.

"I definitely expect that to happen," he replied to ManUtd.com, when asked about the prospect of bringing in more young players. "We’re short on a few numbers in the different age groups and it’s something we need to address, something we are addressing and something we will hopefully get over the line in the next few weeks, in time for next season.

"It’s the same as any other club. We all want to attract the best young players in Europe, at whatever age, and we’re exactly the same. We want to attract the best players we can from all over Europe and bring them into what we feel is already a great set-up."

Of course, United already have a number of talented starlets on the books with van Gaal not afraid to hand chances to them this term.

"We’ve got some really fantastic young players at the club who are good people and good players," continued Butt. "They are on a pathway into the first team and sometimes it comes a bit sooner than for others.

"It’s something we’re really proud of, when a lad gets into the first-team squad, and it is something we should all shout about. Maybe we don’t do that enough and maybe we’re a bit too modest with what we do. But no, we get on with it and get players in the first team and let everybody shout how good we are at pushing them through. Some of our coaches have been here a lot longer than me and are fantastic at that."

When asked about the prospects even further down the production line, Butt said: "It’s the aim for any football team, to get your own youngsters on board and playing in the first team, regularly adding to the superstars that you buy in from all over the world.

"We’ve got a lot of good young players and we’ve seen quite a few of them this year. There are a lot more in the background. Some of them are injured and have been a bit unfortunate and some of them are not quite there yet. But I’m quite comfortable we have got a lot of good footballers. Like I said before, maybe we need to add a few numbers to that and get a bit better on that side of it."