PLUS: The truth about Phil Foden's burnout comments that he claims were misquoted, and why Ange Postecoglou needs to be careful what he wishes for
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By IAN LADYMAN
Published: 12:00 EDT, 29 May 2025 | Updated: 12:00 EDT, 29 May 2025
Amid the detritus of Manchester United’s desperate season, absolutely anything is fair game for criticism.
Losing a nonsense game of park football in Malaysia just two days after travelling halfway around the world following the end of the Premier League season, for example. Who really cares?
Telling staff they must pay for their own lunch at work. Why not? Most of us do.
And then there is Scott McTominay who, over the course of one brilliant title-winning season in Italy with Napoli, has suddenly become the symbol for every misstep ever made by United in the transfer market in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.
McTominay, sold by Erik ten Hag’s United for £25million in the summer of 2024, has done fabulously in Naples. What an achievement for the Scottish midfielder to be voted the league’s best player. At 28, he has made probably the bravest step of his career and been lavishly rewarded. His is a story of resilience, belief and courage.
But none of that means McTominay should not have been sold. For all their current and varied troubles, United are a club for whom winning the Premier League – or at least challenging consistently – is what matters. That should always be the target.
Scott McTominay, over the course of one brilliant title-winning season in Italy with Napoli, has become the symbol for every misstep made by Manchester United in the transfer market
McTominay was named MVP of Serie A this season and was granted an audience with Pope Leo XIV
McTominay is thriving out in Naples but it doesn't change what happened in Manchester
And McTominay wasn’t quite good enough for that. Just as Anthony Elanga, doing well at Nottingham Forest, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, finding new life at West Ham, were not good enough for that either. This is why they were sold and they were the right calls at the time.
The argument, presented by many, that McTominay would have helped United finish higher than their final spot of 15th this time round is valid, but also pointless.
If United’s ceiling of ambition is to be vaguely competitive then McTominay, and others who have similarly passed through, are your guys.
With McTominay starting regularly, United finished 8th in 2024, 3rd in 2023, 6th in 2022 and 2nd in 2021. The deficits from the summit were 31, 14, 35 and 12 points.
So yes that was all better than this time but it was still not good enough for United and it never at any stage felt like it was, despite what previous managers such as Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may attempt to tell us now.
The country’s biggest football club were not getting closer to real relevance. They were treading water and only occasionally managing to drift close enough to the teams who win things.
Things had to change. United needed upgrades and the midfield area was as important an area as any. United haven’t controlled games of football for years. Maintaining possession and building a platform on which to play should be one of the club’s fundamentals but it was lost years ago.
Selling McTominay – and previously his Brazilian midfielder partner Fred – was not the mistake. No, the problem has come about on the back of the players bought to replace them and that’s very different.
The likes of McTominay, Anthony Elanga and Fred played in an average United team, no matter what revisionists claim
United never at any stage felt like they were the best of the best, despite what previous managers such as Jose Mourinho may attempt to tell us now
United bought the Uruguay midfielder Manuel Ugarte to replace McTominay but he could not even make the starting XI against Tottenham for the Europa League final
Last summer, for example, United bought the Uruguay midfielder Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain. He cost more than £40m and should have been an improvement on those who had come before.
Yet when Ruben Amorim selected his team for the Europa League final in Bilbao last week, the biggest game of United's season, Ugarte was overlooked with the experienced yet pedestrian midfielder Casemiro starting instead.
Beside him was Bruno Fernandes, United’s best attacking player asked to play deeper while the man bought to play there sat on the bench.
These are United’s enduring problems and they are clear. They have a habit of buying deeply average players and it must change. But suggesting people like McTominay were saviours in disguise is simply revisionism of the dumbest kind.
Serie A is a league of repute but it doesn’t ask the same questions of players as the Premier League does. Other former United players are prominent. Romelu Lukaku also has a winner’s medal with Napoli while Matteo Darmian and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are thriving at Inter.
Inter may even win the Champions League this weekend and others will see that as further evidence of United’s flawed judgment. But Liverpool won it in 2005, a year when they finished fifth in the Premier League, a place behind Everton and 37 points behind champions Chelsea. Djimi Traore was in the team. It happens.
It now seems Kevin De Bruyne may join Napoli too, from Manchester City. The great Belgian has been available for free but big Premier League clubs haven’t touched him. That’s because the consensus is he no longer has the legs for our league. For the best team in Italy, yes. For the Premier League? The jury says not.
Alongside McTominay in midfield as Napoli clinched the Serie A title against Cagliari, meanwhile, was another Scot, Billy Gilmour. Sold by Chelsea. Sold by Brighton. Prospering in Italy.
Matteo Darmian, who hardly pulled up any trees at United, is thriving with Inter Milan
Other former United players are prominent in Serie A. Romelu Lukaku also has a winner’s medal with Napoli
Alongside McTominay in midfield as Napoli clinched the Serie A title against Cagliari was Billy Gilmour. Sold by Chelsea. Sold by Brighton. Prospering in Italy
All of this is very telling and significant in the McTominay debate. It doesn’t lessen his achievement and doubtless he could make a living in the Premier League again if he so wished, just not playing for a team that has aspirations of being the very best.
If United wish to occasionally dip their toe in and out of the top five of the Premier League for evermore then 7/10 footballers like McTominay and the rest are the way forward. If they wish to ever win it again, they must continue to look for better.
The truth about what Foden said
In a phone call with England manager Thomas Tuchel, Phil Foden has said his comments about needing a rest have been misconstrued. It’s understandable. Telling a new national coach that you may need to sit out the third and fourth games of his tenure is not easy.
Yet in the emotional environment of the interview area after Manchester City’s FA Cup final defeat by Crystal Palace, that is exactly what Foden said. I was standing nearby and have seen the transcript. There was no ambiguity. No misjudged context. It’s simply what he said.
The fact that one of England’s brightest talents now feels so uncomfortable about being a poster boy for burnout this summer tells us all we need to know about the stigma around it
The football calendar needs to change. If it doesn’t, the unrelenting cycle of domestic, European and international football will ruin the lot of them
And the fact that one of England’s brightest talents now feels so uncomfortable about being a poster boy for burnout this summer tells us all we need to know about the stigma around the subject.
But it needs to change. If it doesn’t, the unrelenting cycle of domestic, European and international football will ruin the lot of them.
I wouldn't bang on about precedent, Ange
Ange Postecoglou says he is confused by the debate about his future at Tottenham.
Ange Postecoglou may claim he has had an unprecedented season at Tottenham, but chairman Daniel Levy may well see it a different way
‘I've been finding it really weird talking about this when we've done something unprecedented,’ he says.
His reference point for ‘unprecedented’ is winning the Europa League, something Spurs did in 1972 and 1984 when it was the UEFA Cup. But as Spurs chairman Daniel Levy considers offering the job to someone like Thomas Frank, his focus may well be on something else entirely.
Spurs lost 22 times in the Premier League this season. That’s more than any other non-relegated team in the 38-game era. It’s also one more than Spurs lost when they finished bottom of the old First Division in 1977.
Not for 90 years have Tottenham lost so many league games, and never have they lost more. Unprecedented indeed.