Sir Bobby & the rest - thread for ex-Utd players or products

A great breakdown of how and why Scott has impressed this season with Napoli.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6320224/2025/05/02/scott-mctominay-napoli-analysis/

I honestly saw him more as holding/CB type, but his leaping headers and knack to finish both inside and outside the box have proven me well wrong. Very mobile player who covers loads of ground, box-t-box, and who always seems to know when and where to be to open the score. He's been great all season, but as of late he's been on even better level.

IMO Conte has been the difference maker. Conte was a great 8. On a tactical level, I think Scott has grown a lot under him. Before Scott looked really lost in the midfield. He now looks much more focused and disciplined. I think that's why he can get forward more without leaving his team too open.

 

Why does it seem like most of our loanees and ex-players are having great success outside the club? Is this a mistaken assumption or are things really that toxic at the club?

 

So it appears that the joint top scorer in Ligue Un is Mason.

I really hate our management team for how poorly they managed the whole situation.

 

I think some of the clowns who run the club pictured him slowly driving down the M1 in a Ford Bronco with half of Manchester's "finest" chasing after him...

 

I don't know but they never really tried to improve his image. I would have done it completely different.

 

I can write a book on this question. Someone could teach a course and lecture students for a semester over this question.

I'll simplify as best as I can because I think it really comes down to three things and I wouldn't put it down to a toxic culture.

First of all, the EPL is simply that much tougher a league. The pace and intensity, the level of competition now, is staggering. The difference between the EPL and every other league is getting to a point where's it's almost like comparing the NBA to Euroleague. Other than Real, PSG, Barca, Bayern, and the most dominant side in Serie A (looks like Inter now, but generally speaking Juve), are there any other clubs in Europe that can compete in the EPL? The other tops leagues are one-horse pony shows. No surprise Man U, Spurs, and Chelsea reached the other European cup finals and did it with ease despite Spurs and Man U being horrendous in the EPL. The way the EPL is going, it's the super league.

Secondly, Man U lacks an overarching strategy, i.e., not having a proper TD. You'd think we resolved that with the hiring of Ashworth, but that proved a disaster. This club remains as rudderless as ever.

That ties into the third reason, poor tactics and coaching. And you see this kind of flawed analysis in all our signings. Maguire too slow for a high line. AWB can't cross. We are talking about issues these players had that were glaringly obvious and should have given us enough pause for thought to say, maybe we shouldn't risk spending too much to sign them. But there are ways tactically to mask these issues. Maguire does look a lot better when we defend deep and with a 3-man (really 5-man) defense. I actually think he's playing his best football for us right now. He looked his absolute worst under Rangnick and a bit under Ole when he decided to go high line towards the end. Then again, should Man U play so deep? That to me signals he wasn't right for us. The other day when we lost to West Ham, AWB didn't run down the chalk lines, he cut inside into the middle of the park. He didn't cross the ball, he passed it and got an assist, plus made the key pass on the first goal. That's a credit to Potter recognizing AWB's limitations and working with them. That said, is that what we needed when we signed AWB? We needed someone who could defend and cross.

That even goes for homegrown kids. McTominay is thriving under Conte. Part of that comes down to the fact Conte was an 8 and he understands that role fully, whereas ten Hag was a CB and didn't seem to understand the tactics he was adopting and that reflected with our cluelessness on the park. Ten Hag never played two free 8s ever before in his career. He was simply copying a tactical trend. And he pushed to sign Mount? Why? And he wanted to sell McTominay. When you think about it, McTominay was the perfect player for that free #8 role. Is McTominay really cut out for the EPL? I think he's not technically gifted and cerebral enough, but in Serie A, he looks a lot sharper and he seems to be getting somewhat better on the ball. You can says the same about Rashford. I think initially ten Hag did great with Rashy, but he lost his focus off the park and he needs a manager who can handle him a bit carefully. There's a football side, but also a human side, and ten Hag struggled with the human side of things. Again, coaching can get a player to improve. So part of it is also the tactics and coaching simply wasn't good enough.

Others, I simply think never stood a chance. So when we look at a player like Antony, just as an example, his main issue wasn't the domestic abuse claims. This I would put down to purely poor recruitment strategy. He's the record holding highest ever paid Eredivisie signing and our 2nd most expensive ever signing. We simply overpaid for someone who we could have gotten for cheaper if we acted earlier (I don't mean years earlies; I mean weeks earlier), but moreover, why did we need him? If we weren't still stuck in the SAF mindset, we would never have signed Antony. We only did it because ten Hag insisted and because our TDs fell into the job mostly out of a lack of direction from the Glazers. We already had Sancho, Mason and Amad for the right. And to think, Amad was the one slated for the cut. And then you look at him as a player, what suggests he's cut out for the EPL? He takes a million touches. He's not direct enough. The EPL prizes directness over everything else. Maybe you can coach that part of his game out of him, but what are you left with? Does he have the pace to beat defenders? That part you can't coach, you either have pace or you don't. So what do you do tactically with him differently? IMO nothing. He is a winger who toys with defenders without the pace for the EPL, end stop. He was never right for us and it was obvious from the moment we signed him.

 

He was a hot potato for them and they didn't know what to do. I'm really surprised they didn't just tell him get some therapy, admit you need to be a better man, and move on from there. It seemed very straight forward to me and things got a lot easier once he and his girl reconciliated.

 

That is what I mean. Like basic crisis management companies would have told you don't turn better woman's groups into the enemy

 

The kicker is, did we learn our lessons? If it were to happen again, I'm not sure anything would have been handled better. Worse yet, the club has made so many cuts, the culture has become so corporate, that I think it might be handled more coldly now. If it happened now, we'd just throw the player completely under the bus.

 

Well you just made me sadder today. I realized that you are 100 percent right.

 

They just gave Scotty the league MVP award in Serie A.

 

man it's brutal seeing almost every loan or sale doing leagues better elsewhere than at united. truly a dark age for us.

 

The MVP was great, but the goal he scored to win the title... OMGosh



Not gonna lie... I'm fangirling.

IMO Conte has made him as good as Declan Rice. Crazy.

 

Better video

 

I've praised Scott, but Lukaku has also been brilliant, despite having clearly lost a step over the years. He scored a super goal to seal it, fighting off Mina and shaking off another defender from the halfway line.

 

I've always liked him. I also thought United would regret selling him while Mount is about. But what's done is done. If Mainoo will develop and be given trust then it won't matter.