Scott McTominay has dismissed the suggestion that players improve when leaving Manchester United as nothing more than a “myth”, insisting that his former club did everything for him even if they did not enjoy the great success he has since their parting in 2024.
Despite McTominay’s insistence to the contrary, a string of high profile players have enjoyed great success since leaving Old Trafford in recent years, a group that includes Antony, Angel Gomes and Alvaro Carreras. On the surface level that trend seems to have accelerated in recent months. Both Rasmus Hojliund and Marcus Rashford are enjoying productive spells on loan at the champions of Italy and Spain, the latter in particular given he has delivered seven goals and 11 assists in 23 appearances for Barcelona.
No one so far has matched the post United success of McTominay, who was voted Serie A MVP and nominated for the Ballon d’Or off a debut season with Napoli in which he led them to a fourth league title. However, speaking on CBS Sports’ Kickin’ It interview series, he had little time for the suggestion that getting out of Manchester had much to do with future success.
“It’s just too easy of an excuse to say ‘oh they left Man United and now they’re doing well’. In my last year [at the club] I did well,” he said. “I scored 10 goals and we won a trophy. With Marcus there were different issues which might have transpired and which we won’t go into.
“Marcus is a top player. He has always been a top player. He’s one of the club legends. He scored so many goals for Manchester United, did so many great things. Because the spotlight is directly on you, it makes it seem a lot worse in my opinion. When players go away and play more games they’re going to have an increase in confidence and feel better about themselves rather than playing fewer minutes at Manchester United for example. When you are at United, you have to earn those minutes like Bruno Fernandes, who has done incredible.
“Potentially [a change in environment helps] but there’s also some players who leave who people don’t speak about so much. Some everyone speaks about. It depends on the individual. For me I think it’s too easy an excuse to blame Manchester United as a club. Whenever I was there they did everything for me. They helped with my nutrition, they helped me with training, they helped me tactically, whoever the manager was there. Everything is put there for you to succeed. It’s not like they don’t give you things that other clubs do. The myth of they go away and they become better players comes down to confidence.”
McTominay proved to be a valuable squad player in over 250 appearances for United, with whom his association began at just five years of age. Successive managers came to value the industry and reliability of the Scotland international, who departed for Naples in the summer of 2024 in a deal worth nearly $35 million that allowed money to be invested elsewhere in the squad of then manager Erik ten Hag. It would be fair to say that a sale United were reluctant to sanction at the time is one that they are filled with even more regrets over since, the 29 year old a hero among Napoli supporters with 18 goals and nine assists to his name.
Key to McTominay’s success has been the impact of Napoli head coach Antonio Conte, whose system gave the midfielder licence to drive upfield and get close to the attackers, making telling contributions in the penalty area while also serving as an outlet for passes.
“I love him to be honest,” McTominay said of his manager. “He’s so passionate and so how would I describe it? It’s a different sense of fire than I’ve ever seen before in terms of someone who just lives and breathes football. Tactically he’s very, very good in terms of the way that he sets the team up and the message that gets put across to the players. It’s very, very high level.
“A lot of film, a lot of video, a lot of analyzing the opposition team. A lot of on pitch, sometimes walkthroughs, sometimes really high intensity depending on the day and stuff like that. And really getting the message out on the pitch predominantly where we can move around and feel the positions of how we want to press or how we want to defend or positions that we need our attacking players to be in when we’re going for goals.
“I definitely don’t need someone who is putting their arm around me and stuff like that. It’s never really been my sort of style. However they are with me is fine,. I know whenever I’ve not played well and I know when I’ve played well. The firmer approach normally is a wake up call saying you need to fix up pretty quick, otherwise you’ve got a problem… I’m not a kid. I need someone to push me sometimes if I might not notice it myself.”
