Scott McTominay: What's happened since he left Man Utd?

Six weeks have passed since Scott McTominay bid a permanent farewell to Manchester United, the club where he’d spent 22 of his almost 28 years on this planet.

Despite scoring ten goals across all competitions last season, McTominay wasn’t a regular starter for Erik ten Hag and his contributions weren’t enough to convince the manager to keep him at Old Trafford.

Even though Ten Hag later said he would have ideally preferred not to let McTominay go, United knew they needed to sell during the summer transfer window if they were going to bring new players in and home-grown sales are much more valuable when it comes to the Premier League’s increasingly strict financial regulations. McTominay, who was the subject of a rejected £30m bid from West Ham in 2023, was earmarked as someone who could bring in the funds that would allow United to sign Manuel Ugarte.

Napoli eventually agreed to pay around £25m to take the Scotland international to Italy, linking up at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona with compatriot Billy Gilmour, ex-United teammate Romelu Lukaku and former Premier League-winning manager Antonio Conte.

Donning the No.8 shirt previously worn at Napoli by the likes of Fabian Ruiz, Jorginho, late Colombian legend Freddy Rincon and World Cup winner, Alain Boghossian, McTominay made his Napoli debut as a substitute in a 4-0 win over Cagliari in Serie A straight after the September international break.

He has since been drafted into Conte’s starting lineup, typically in an advanced midfield role in front of a deeper holding pair as the coach seeks to tap into McTominay’s ability to arrive in the box as a goal threat. It was a quality that he showed at United last season.

The Scot’s status as a starter in Conte’s eyes was evident when a Coppa Italia tie against second-tier Palermo in late September saw him drop to the bench alongside Lukaku, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Matteo Politano, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Amir Rrahmani and captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo.

But that game also yielded McTominay’s first Napoli goal, as he was brought on for the final stages with his team 3-0 ahead and set up by Lukaku. The Belgian striker was again the assister when McTominay netted just 26 seconds into Napoli’s most recent Serie A outing against Como – another win.

It already seems to a partnership worth pursuing and Lukaku appears optimistic: “He knows my game, we played together in Manchester for two years. I know his ability in front of goal is lethal, we expect many goals and assists from him. He is doing very well and must continue like this.”

Napoli are unbeaten since McTominay arrived and he seems right at home, quickly kissing the badge on his new shirt whilst celebrating his goal against Palermo.

Sometimes you don’t realise what you have until it’s gone and hindsight has led people to question United’s logic given how McTominay is suddenly performing for Napoli.

But opinion is ultimately still divided on whether letting him go was right or wrong.

Whether McTominay was good enough to realise United’s overall ambitions or not, the midfield he left behind definitely doesn’t appear to be in a better place in his absence.

Ugarte was the chosen upgrade but will take some time to settle and had a shocker on his full United debut in the 3-0 annihilation at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur. He was benched as a result and hasn’t even set foot on the pitch since, with Ten Hag instead preferring to restore Christian Eriksen to his primary lineup in subsequent games against Porto and Aston Villa.

The Casemiro issue persists, with United forced to keep relying on the veteran Brazilian, who is now a shadow of the former world beater from his Real Madrid days. There is also too much demand on Kobbie Mainoo to be the saviour, with the team lacking presence in the middle of the park.

For the first time in his United career, Bruno Fernandes is also struggling for form and his frustration is proving a liability. He was harshly dismissed against Tottenham and had that overturned, but another red card in the Europa League a few days later was reckless from him in the circumstances.

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