Only a few of the players who were at the club when Jose Mourinho was in charge between 2016 and 2018 remain at Old Trafford today but the Portuguese manager left a lasting impression on all of them.
Mourinho succeeded Louis van Gaal after the Dutchman’s two-year spell in Manchester and there were plenty of takeaways from the former Chelsea boss’ reign.
Scott McTominay was one of the players to emerge from the academy during that time and even then, roughly seven years on from his first-team debut, it was clear that McTominay was one of the manager’s favourites.
Speaking now, three managers later, McTominay has praised his former manager, hailing him as a ‘hero’ for giving him the chance to represent the club.
“There’s a picture in my grandparents’ house of me making my debut in the Champions League, standing beside Jose Mourinho,” McTominay told FourFourTwo.
“They loved him because he gave me that moment. He gave me that initial opportunity, so he will always be a hero of mine. I’ll be forever grateful for everything that he did for me.”
McTominay continued to reminisce about his earliest memories as a first-team player and recalled one instance where Mourinho made sure to lay down the law following an argument on the training pitch.
“I remember that when I first started training with the first team, I got into an argument with a couple of the senior players over the way a small-sided game was going. Ashley Young was one of them and, trust me, he can handle himself. I was only 17 or 18 at the time, but I wasn’t happy that our team was losing and maybe I went too far,” he said.
“Jose pulled me aside and said: ‘You can’t speak to the senior professionals like that.’ He told me that they would respect me for standing up for myself and having that fire in the belly, but I had to get them onside first.
“I think he knew my reaction came from a good place – because I wanted to do well. It gave me a lot to think about.”
Going into this summer, McTominay remains a regular for the club and has adopted the role of Erik ten Hag’s preferred impact substitute, scoring a number of crucial goals.
United’s standing in the league table is more or less irrelevant for the remainder of this season but the Reds could save some face later this month in the FA Cup final against Manchester City – a repeat of last year’s final.
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