Outspoken former Rangers midfielder Joey Barton’s dig at Scott McTominay back in 2018 looks very interesting now. It has been a near-perfect week for the Napoli star, who scored a beautiful overhead-kick goal during Scotland’s 4-2 comeback win over Denmark to help the Tartan Army qualify for the World Cup in stunning fashion.
The 28-year-old has unveiled a completely different version of himself since leaving Manchester United in 2024. If his MVP award in his first Serie A season - as Napoli stormed to the Scudetto - didn’t already prove that, then his recent international heroics have surely silenced the rest of his critics. Watch his stunning goal below:
Among those critics, the usual argument from naysayers was that McTominay simply wasn’t good enough for a big club, that he was out of his depth at United. But Barton had a very different take on his struggles - one that looks even more bizarre now that McTominay is shining and proving many doubters wrong.
The Bizarre Dig Barton Aimed At Scott McTominay Back in 2018
Scott McTominay Scotland
Barton claimed McTominay has chosen to pledge his international future to Scotland "because he wants his summers off." Speaking on Alan Brazil’s Sport Breakfast Show on talkSPORT when the midfielder was just 21-years-old, he said, as per The Sun: “He obviously wants his summers off.
“He has shown his ambition hasn’t he? He realises the weight of playing for England and working every summer - he doesn’t want that. Maybe Manchester United and Fergie have influenced it."
Joey Barton
But the criticism of him ended there, as Barton very quickly started praising him. “Scotland have improved the last qualification campaign and if he feels more Scottish than English fair play to the kid," he continued.
“It would have been easy to go financially to the England side and, if you are in the Manchester United team, then there’s a good chance you get called up by England. That has been a route map for a long period if you look at [Jesse] Lingaard and [Marcus] Rashford etc.
"But fair play to the boy if he feels a passionate Scotsman like Mr Brazil here, then it can only be a good thing for Scotland because he is a seriously talented individual.”
Seven years on, it could be argued that McTominay - once written off as half of United’s much-mocked “McFred” duo - is now Scotland’s most talented footballer. And, importantly, he won't be having any breaks next summer, with the Scots heading across the pond en masse for the World Cup - the first time the nation has qualified for one since 1998.
At England, where Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham are just two of many fighting tooth and nail for a guaranteed spot in the engine room, McTominay may have never been the star of the show. But for a country as passionate as Scotland, that probably didn't cross his mind anyway, and playing for the Tartan Army simply means more.