Jacob Butterfield described his decision to join Melbourne Victory as a “no-brainer” as the midfielder prepares for his debut campaign.
Butterfield signed with Victory last month after more than 300 appearances in the Championship with the likes of Barnsley, Derby County, Huddersfield Town, Middlesbrough and most recently Luton Town.
The English midfielder, a former Manchester United youth player, said the decision to join Victory was an easy one.
“When Melbourne Victory became an option for me it was really a no-brainer, the size of the club is just fantastic,” Butterfield told Victory TV.
“Also, with that, the conversations with the manager and he just made me feel really wanted and just got me excited that this was the right club for me at this stage.
“The second part was that before this I’d actually felt like I’d wanted this kind of opportunity and this sort of new experience in my career after playing for so long in England and racking up a lot of games and a lot of experience there.
“I felt like I was looking for this sort of thing and then thankfully Melbourne Victory came up as an option so I jumped at it.”
Butterfield has been named in Victory’s AFC Champions League squad ahead of the club resuming its Group E campaign against Beijing FC in Doha on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old believes he will be ready to go in Qatar despite limited preparation after being in hotel quarantine on his arrival in Australia due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ll be fine. I’m naturally quite fit,” Butterfield said.
“You can’t be football ready without playing football, but you can have a good base level of fitness which I think I’m going to have so just getting on the grass and playing football as much as possible before the games start next week and give myself the best chance.”
Victory head coach Grant Brebner feels Butterfield will be an excellent addition to his squad.
“When we’ve been successful we’ve always had a player like Jacob and in the back of my mind that is what it was,” he said.
“We’ve had Kevin Muscat, Carl Valeri, Mark Milligan, somebody that goes in and works really hard for the team, does a lot of jobs that maybe the members and fans would take for granted, but certainly when you sit in my position you need somebody in there that’s working extra hard for the team, breaking up tackles, winning the ball.
“That doesn’t do him justice because on the ball as well he’s a terrific footballer. He sees passes, he plays passes and he does tell me that he pops up with the odd goal as well.”
