The more time passes, the more Scott McTominay confirms himself as a cornerstone of Antonio Conte’s Napoli, as well as a successful purchase by the Neapolitan club. The 30.5 million euro investment to take him from Manchester United was the best president De Laurentiis could achieve, considering the contribution made so far by the Scotsman: 348 minutes of determination from a box-to-box player with a goal and an assist in the league in his first season in Serie A.
Even with Scotland McTominay made a rapid impact and his goals made him perhaps the most important player of the national team: 11 goals in 55 appearances, including 6 centers in 5 matches as he qualified for Euro 2024 with his teammates. If there’s anyone to congratulate on the choice to debut the player in interaction matches, it’s it Alex McLeishformer Scotland coach: “It was a bit crazy,” he began on the ‘Sacked in the Morning’ podcast by BBC Scotland.
But thinking back to McTominay’s first appearances (debut in 2018), the 65-year-old coach can’t help but think of theinfluence of José Mourinhoformer manager of Manchester United where he coached him: “Steve Clarke (current manager, ed.) would have taken him anyway, I’m sure, but José Mourinho said ‘Scott could play for Scotland and he wants to play for Scotland, so Alex McLeish should come and sign him.’ So I went down. I went to Edinburgh and was going to get a train to Manchester Piccadilly from York, but they decided the train would only go as far as Newcastle.”
An inconvenience solved and the beginning of a story. “Luckily I got another train to York, but by then it was three in the morning and I was seriously thinking about turning back. I thought I wouldn’t have a room at 4 in the morning! But they found one for me, I rang the club the morning and Mourinho said ‘come at 12, have lunch, we’ll talk about Scott and then we’ll take him to the room’. José was very accommodating and very convinced that Scott should play for Scotland! Jose was my chief scout!”, he McLeish. “Scott came in and said ‘I’ve been thinking about nothing but playing for Scotland’. When I heard those words I thought ‘we’ve got a player’,” he added.