I always liked Scott McTominay, and I was against his sale from the start. United should never have sold him.
People made the argument that he was average, not technically gifted, or never got the balance right with tactical discipline. There is probably some truth in these opinions, but my God he could get you out of a hole. McTominay scored important goals for us, usually through pure grit and determination. Let’s not forget the moment McTominay came off the bench to score twice in injury time to beat Brentford at Old Trafford. That wasn’t just ability, that was a player refusing to accept defeat. That’s what United is supposed to be about.
He never really nailed down a specific position, though. The McFred partnership in midfield wasn’t a winner, but if a manager puts the wrong two players together that’s on him, not the players. The fact that he did whatever was asked of him without complaint is one of the reasons I liked him.
More crucially, at a time when we had something of a mentality crisis, when we were just shedding the last of the childish attitudes left over from the Jesse Lingard era, McTominay was the total opposite. His mentality was elite. Mentally, he was everything a Manchester United player should be, and used to be: determined, loyal, uninterested in fame, football focussed, hard working, a team player.
He was a shining example to new lads coming through, and we got rid of him.
People don’t tell you who they are, they show you. Well, since he joined Napoli, McTominay has sure showed us.
Reasons for the Sale
𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎: Erik ten Hag has criticised the Premier League’s financial rules for forcing him to sell homegrown players, claiming he did not want to sell Scott McTominay to Napoli.
[@TimesSport] pic.twitter.com/GFRDozfBW1
— Transfer Sector (@TransferSector) August 30, 2024
As we know, the sale was mainly motivated by finances.
Manchester United are in a terrible financial situation, and with McTominay being a home grown player any money made selling him was pure profit. This was going to help a lot with financial fair play rules.
But that just highlights that this wasn’t a footballing decision. Erik Ten Hag even said he wanted to keep McTominay.
In his words:
“He is Manchester United in everything. He was so important for our team, for Manchester United, but unfortunately it’s the rules. We have to discuss the rules, when you have to sell and obviously homegrown and academy players bring more value, that’s not the right thing to do.”
Phil Jones made similar comments on the situation, calling it a “travesty” that a club has to sell a home grown player to navigate the FFP rules.
He scored 10 goals for us in his last season in a United shirt, so this decision was not about football, and not everything of value can be accounted for on a balance sheet.
Since He Left for Napoli
So what has happened since he left?
Well, Ten Hag has gone, Ugarte was brought in to replace McTominay, Toby Collyer has started breaking through, and we signed the likes of De Ligt, Mazraoui, Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee partly using the money from selling Scott. Dorgu too, but he came later.
Ugarte has had his moments but has been inconsistent, although I do like his attitude, Toby Collyer is home grown so would have started getting minutes regardless, and while we have seen some positive signs from all 4 other signings, they have also had some stinkers, and at the time of writing all but Mazraoui are out injured.
Oh, and we are 16th in the league having just lost 0-2 at home to West Ham…
And McTominay?
Oh, he’s casually smashing it in Naples, possibly about to win the league (Napoli are 1 point ahead with just 2 very winnable games to go), and has been a fan favourite since the moment he arrived.
He has scored 11 league goals in 32 games, which makes him their second top scorer for the season. Plus 4 assists and another goal in the Coppa Italia.
They call him McTerminator.
What could those 11 league goals have meant for us? Bruno is our top scorer this season with a grand total of 8.
We should never have sold Scott McTominay.