Manchester United youngster Scott McTominay is looking to follow in Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard’s footsteps and become a first-team fixture in the near future.
McTominay first caught United’s eye at age five at their development centre in Preston, and he has progressed through the ranks at Carrington, becoming a regular in the under-23 side last season before making his first-team debut in May.
The 20-year-old came off the bench against Arsenal before starting against Crystal Palace in the final Premier League game of the season and was taken on United’s pre-season tour of the United States this season by José Mourinho, impressing throughout.
In an in-depth interview with Simon Peach of the Press Association (via the Daily Mail), the midfielder said it was a dream to be in the first-team reckoning:
It’s crazy when you think back all them years to when you’re five years old going to the development centre, and then going all the way through the ranks.
It honestly is a dream come true for me to be playing in the first team, and playing against teams like Real Madrid.
But obviously you just want more and more of that and that is the main thing for my career: to be playing in them big games, in competitive games and just do my best and hopefully see where it takes me.
McTominay has had wait patiently for his chance to impress as his physical development continued, and a growth spurt saw his height grow from 5’6″ to an imposing 6’4″ in just two-and-a-half years.
In that regard, he said that fellow Academy graduates Rashford and Lingard were role models to him, as they had also been late bloomers in terms of their development:
Marcus and Jesse are such role models to me because they were late developers like I am.
At 16 years old, I was like a really young boy and it takes time for boys to blossom and that is why this club was so patient with me. Not every single boy is physically capable of going and playing in the Premier League at such a young age.
I still personally think I’ve got a long way to go with my physique, I am still quite slim. I am not the finished article physically. Nowhere near. But you just have to keep working hard every day and hopefully improve on all that and see how it goes.
McTominay’s development saw him attract the interest of Championship clubs in the summer, but he elected to stay at Old Trafford instead of option for a temporary spell elsewhere, and he was rewarded with a spot in the first-team squad by Mourinho when Andreas Pereira left for Valencia on loan towards the end of the transfer window.
And the Lancaster-born midfielder, who is eligible for both England and Scotland, said that the manager gives him a lot of helpful advice:
Things he does say stay between me and the manager, sort of thing, but a lot of it is help and advice, really.
It’s all like when we go out on the pitch, what I can do better, things that I can improve on and he is brilliant for that with young players.
He’s top – he’s perfect for a manager and that’s why he is manager of Man United. He’s a really good guy.
