A former Manchester United starlet has opened up on his time at the club in a rare interview about his Old Trafford career, admitting that he would change everything about his days at the Red Devils.
The 29-year-old – now at League Two outfit Stockport County – spent four years on the books at Old Trafford before finally joining Wigan on a permanent deal in 2016, having made just nine senior appearances and scoring one goal.
It was a spell defined by numerous loan moves to Wigan, Leicester and Hull, having joined with huge promise following him after leaving boyhood club Crewe Alexandra for around £4million.
Nonetheless, the player was part of the last Man United side to lift the Premier League title, doing so in 2013 in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final campaign before retirement.
But in a tell-all interview with Sport Bible, the former England youth international admitted that his time at one of the biggest clubs in the world was not the most successful period in his career.
Nick Powell (right) joined Manchester United and July 2012 for £4m from Crewe Alexandra
Powell spent four years at the club, but only made nine appearances, scoring once on his debut
Powell celebrates scoring against Wigan in September 2012, just a few weeks after signing for £4m
By his own admission, Nick Powell was not a popular player with the club’s fanbase, admitting that the perception of his career is one that did not quite live up to his enormous potential.
‘I think the biggest thing for United fans is they think I had a bad attitude,’ he confessed. ‘They say I’m such a failure or a flop. But I’m like, I don’t really count Manchester United as part of my career. It’s a nice thing to have on your CV but listen, I only played nine games. It’s not like I was a United player.’
He went on to reference his nine appearances – only three of which came from the start – in four years and claimed that he did not have the opportunity to live his experience as a United player in full, although he admitted it was his own fault for not taking it seriously, but would have done things differently given his time again.
‘I’d change everything [about my time at United], especially my attitude towards it. I was very nice. I’d go to training, try not to annoy anyone and just sort of fit in. I’d just do what I needed to do.’
He freely revealed that he struggled with laziness until he was 25 – something which had a massive impact on his career, which was already seven years down the path by that age.
‘I wasn’t a Manchester United player,’ he stated. ‘They were a machine. Everyone was a cog and it worked really well. I played football for the fun of it, whereas they played to win and that was probably the biggest eye-opener for me.’
But rather than feel sorry for himself, Powell acknowledged that the exposure to such an atmosphere was an enormous privilege to witness, claiming he has taken that mentality with him following his departure.
Arriving at 18 to a club that had won the Champions League just two years earlier was surely a huge shock from operating at League Two level the year before, with one of Powell’s biggest obstacles the new-found media responsibilities.
Powell tells a story of how he angered Sir Alex Ferguson (left) after doing an MUTV interview
Powell (middle) became an outcast in the dressing room as he didn’t feel like he belonged
The 29-year-old now plies his trade in League Two with Stockport County having joined this summer
He tells that he was made to do an interview in front of the cameras for MUTV after scoring against Wigan on debut against his will, due to a reluctance to speak to a live audience at 18.
However, despite feeling that it went well, Powell went in to training the next day only to be met with a furious response from the typically emotive Sir Alex Ferguson.
‘The next day, I walked past Sir Alex going for breakfast. I’m smiling. I’m just buzzing that I scored. But he then turns around and goes, “What the f**k are you doing an interview for?”
‘I was like, “Woah, woah woah. I didn’t want to do it in the first place!” but he wasn’t having any of it. He said, “You’ve not made it yet. I tell you when you can do things like that.” I’ve gone from buzzing to what the f**k is going on here.’
