Scott McTominay of Manchester United and Erik ten Hag, Manager of Manchester United, celebrates with the Emirates FA Cup Trophy
Erik ten Hag made clear he wanted Scott McTominay to remain a Manchester United player
"For everyone, it's a good deal," Erik ten Hag proclaimed when addressing Manchester United selling Scott McTominay to Napoli on transfer deadline day last summer.
Seven months later, it is hard to argue it has turned out that way for everyone. No one in Naples has any complaints, with Antonio Conte's team sitting second in Serie A.
Neither are there any regrets from the player, who is on course to have the most prolific goalscoring season of his career. Instead, those rueing the decision are those of a red persuasion.
Going back to Ten Hag, what the then-United manager said before blaming the transfer on Premier League profitability and sustainability rules rather than the club's profligacy in the transfer market has proved more accurate. "He was so important to our team," he conceded.
Never was that more obvious than last season. United would have been 12 points worse off last season without McTominay's seven league goals - one less than he has in Serie A this season.
Removing his goals and thus those points from the club's total of 60 last season would have seen them finish on 48. Doing so drops them from eighth down to 11th, only above Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion on goal difference.
"Where would United be without McTominay?" was asked when his late heroics rescued a point or all three last season. Now they know, and it's the bottom half of the Premier League table.
The question to ask now is: "Was it worth selling McTominay to sign Manuel Ugarte?" They are different midfielders, no doubt, but it is equally unarguable that one would not be at the club without the other departing and vice-versa.
United were better with McTominay last season, as Ruben Amorim all but acknowledged when suggesting they are currently the worst United team in history. Patrick Dorgu, not Ugarte, was his first signing, but with the Uruguayan inevitably tied to McTominay, it is up to Amorim to mitigate that mistake by getting the best out of the midfielder he now has rather than the one Ten Hag wanted to keep.
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