Yet he disputes the idea that they will need to scrap the current squad to survive. He's prepared to believe we might have seen something on the pitch that he hasn't." Should Wolves end their 18-year exile from the ?te, Butler believes Jones will buy three or four players "to freshen things up". "He gets his points across quickly and well, but also lets the older pros have their say. Then Dave took over, and he obviously talked to the coaches here because he called in January to ask if I was still interested," he explained.As one who admits to having received "a few ear-bashings" from Jones' fellow Scouser, Peter Reid, Butler has found his present manager "more laid back". "You can't sign when you don't know the gaffer is, so I went back to the North-east. The clubs agreed a £1m fee only for Colin Lee, the manager who brought him in, to be sacked before he put pen to paper.

I've also become great friends with Mike Summerbee, who's a City legend, through playing with his son Nicky at Sunderland."Butler, having lost his place on Wearside to Emerson Thome, was loaned to Wolves last December. The other always wants them to win."My role models were the home-grown kids like Paul Lake, Steve Redmond, Andy Hinchcliffe and Paul Moulden. One side of me wants them to get beaten so they can't run away from us. To be honest, though, I'm in two minds with City this season. "My immediate reaction was: 'Great, they've lost their game in hand'. He left with City leading 1-0 after 85 minutes and was stunned to receive a call on his way home saying they had lost. Even after graduating via Bury to the big time (and winning a Republic of Ireland cap along the way by virtue of his marriage to Caroline from County Kildare and a bizarre eligibility law), any time when Sunderland had no game and City were within driving distance, Butler would be there.This season he has seen them 10 times ­ part supporting and part scouting, he insists ­ including their extraordinary recent defeat at relegated Stockport.

Unlike many players, he did not abandon his boyhood allegiance once he became a player, first as an apprentice with Bradford City, and then during a "brilliant" five-year initiation with Rochdale. He was among the singing, swaying hordes at Blackburn after Joe Royle's City side had gone up for the second successive season. A year later, Butler was involved ­ emotionally, that is ­ in another promotion. As we talk, disturbed only by Jones' teasing call of "tell him how I rescued your career", the burly centre-back reminds me that himself, Nathan Blake, Shaun Newton, Mark Kennedy, Dean Sturridge and Alex Rae have all shared in a successful push for Premiership status.In his case it was as a member of the Sunderland side who came up in 1999. Butler, who is hopeful of returning over Easter after missing the draw with Norwich due to sciatica, remains confident that the pedigree of the players Dave Jones has bought over the past 15 months will help them avoid the purgatory of the play-offs. To Wolves' discomfort, neighbours West Bromwich Albion have closed to within three points with five matches left.