{"id":563121,"date":"2026-04-04T00:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563121\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T00:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:33:08","slug":"re-signing-poorer-mans-version-of-steven-gerrard-declared-a-no-brainer-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563121\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-signing &#8216;poorer man\u2019s version of Steven Gerrard&#8217; declared a no-brainer move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nicky Butt is calling on Manchester United to bring Everton star James Garner back to Old Trafford in a stunning move, after his impressive performances on Merseyside this season.<\/p>\n<p>Having come through the United academy, Garner had loan spells at Watford and Nottingham Forest before making a \u00a315million switch to Premier League rivals Everton four years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old has since emerged as a key figure in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/everton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Everton<\/a> XI under David Moyes, chalking up eight goal contributions this season as the Toffees push for the European places during the remaining weeks of the season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/tag\/james-garner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Garner<\/a>\u2019s impressive performances at club level also saw him rewarded with a first England call-up last month, with the midfielder featuring in both matches against Uruguay and Japan and earning praise from Three Lions boss Thomas Tuchel in the process.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/man-utd-internal-division-fernandes-transfer-salah-concern-massive-offers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Man Utd: \u2018Internal division\u2019 over Fernandes transfer sparked by \u2018concern\u2019 ahead of \u2018massive offers\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no secret that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/manchester-united\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Man Utd<\/a> are looking to revamp their midfield this season, with Casemiro already confirmed as leaving, and former Old Trafford star Butt admits that he could see Garner, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/liverpool-take-lead-61m-offer-everton-star-reds-join-four-way-fight-palace-standout\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who has also been linked with a shock move to Liverpool<\/a>, back playing for the Red Devils in the not-so-distant future \u2013 although a deal this summer might be tough to secure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t see why he couldn\u2019t be back at United,\u201d Butt told <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paddypower.com\/bet\" target=\"_blank\">Paddy Power<\/a> when speaking about Garner. \u201cHe\u2019s performing well, he\u2019s playing for a big club with a big expectation with their crowd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously they\u2019re not expected to go and win the Premier League but they\u2019re expected to win and they\u2019ve got passionate support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo he plays under pressure every week, he knows Man United and yeah, he\u2019s doing amazingly well now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got to do it again next season, it\u2019s a bit soon to go and pay big money for him now, but I\u2019m confident he can go and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Butt helped oversee Garner\u2019s development during his time in charge of United\u2019s academy and believes the midfielder has taken his game to another level since then.<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cAt the time Jimmy wasn\u2019t at the level to burst into United and play regularly. It wasn\u2019t working so quite rightly he moved on and kick-started his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJimmy is a bit like the player I was. Not the most talented but his drive and desire to get to the top is up there with anybody I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the disappointing friendly results against Uruguay and Japan, there is now plenty of focus on who makes Tuchel\u2019s final 26-man squad for the showpiece in North America, but Butt would be stunned if Garner is not on the plane.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-clubs-players-world-cup-call-ups-ranking\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League clubs ranked by how screwed they are by the World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cJimmy Garner has done himself a massive, massive favour playing how he played. He\u2019s been phenomenal this season. He\u2019s got it all, he can pass through the lines, he can defend, he can tackle, he can sprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s like a poorer man\u2019s version of Gerrard. Not as good as Gerrard, but he\u2019s in that mould, he can do everything as a modern-day midfielder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe will definitely be going [to the World Cup] after that, he\u2019s got his ticket on the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicky Butt is calling on Manchester United to bring Everton star James Garner back to Old Trafford in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[25461,424,201127,3788,3,1084,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-563121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-everton","9":"tag-front-page","10":"tag-james-garner","11":"tag-manchester-united","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}