How Scott McTominay’s career at Man United has changed since meeting Sir Alex and Jose Mourinho

There have been many crucial moments in Scott McTominay’s young life.

That belated growth spurt. Jose Mourinho’s decision to hand him a new contract. Choosing Scotland over England. But, perhaps, nothing quite compares to meeting Julie Hudson.

The 59-year-old was the founder of McTominay’s first club, the Halton Hotshots, where the youngster first kicked a ball in anger from the age of just three-and-a-half.

Fatefully, when Mrs Hudson’s son, Charlie, was invited to United’s north-west development centre in Preston, she asked club scout Steve Done if McTominay could pop along with him when he was just five years of age.

“It was more, ‘Look I’ve got this very young boy who is very talented’ and they said to bring him along to the satellite centre,” she told MEN Sport.

“I don’t think Steve ever saw him play before that because we had three or four boys in the satellite centre already. It moved from there and there was never any doubt.”

McTominay has always been happiest with the ball at his feet

So what made him so special?

Among those who caught a glimpse of a young McTominay was Stuart Seddon, a former coach at Lancaster City Youths, who remembers watching the youngster in action for the Hotshots at the Giant Axe Stadium.

Little did he know that McTominay would one day enrol at the secondary school he worked in, at Our Lady’s Catholic College, and become friends with his son, Oliver, even attending his 18th birthday party several years later.

“His team would give the ball to him and dun, dun, dun, dun, dun he would take on five or six players and score and then would give the ball to him again and he would do the same thing!” he told MEN Sport.

“I went home that day and told my wife, Helen, ‘I’ve just seen a future international captain’. I’d never seen anything like that before.”

McTominay was a high achiever in school, too

Unsurprisingly, by that stage, McTominay had already had the nod from United scout Done, who also discovered Liam Grimshaw and Joe Riley.

From the age of five, the youngster spent four years at United’s north-west development centre under the watchful eye of coach Charlie Jackson.

Jackson’s philosophy centered around technical drills that work on youngsters’ cognitive qualities. So, for example, where passes go, when to press and close down, the importance of quick one-twos, etc.

They are changed subtly to keep the players on their toes but each week, McTominay would discuss them in minute detail with his father, Frank, on the drive home as Jackson remembers.

“We saw straight away that this kid is tenacious,” the 48-year-old told MEN Sport. “He had everything. The drills we gave him were high conceptual and the stuff he was doing was incredible. We knew then we had something really special.

A young McTominay with Jackson, right

“The skills were so difficult we gave him . We set him up to fail really but every time he came through.”

McTominay took that experience and tutelage into his schoolboy career, too, and was captain of Our Lady’s Catholic College’s Year Seven football team.

And former assistant head teacher Ken Mangan, 57, remembers a ‘likable’ and ‘popular’ kid who was the talk of Lancaster on the field.

“He was not one of the tallest at that age but he was very strong physically. Even in the playground I saw him a few times playing with kids older than him and still holding his own,” he told MEN Sport.

“He got around the pitch – he was everywhere – and was very, very mobile. He could strike the ball. Because it’s quite a small area, all the other clubs knew that and every time he got the ball someone went to close him down because they knew. “

McTominay has always relished battles on the field

McTominay’s size was a talking point as he entered his teens but United were sure he would grow – sooner rather than later – and decided to keep him on at the master age of 14/15.

The pint-sized teenager soon learnt a few harsh lessons playing in the mixed age group sessions in the cages at Carrington with Paul Pogba, Tyler Blackett, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard.

If you could not move the ball quickly, you would not survive – regardless of what height you were.

McTominay stood at 5ft 6in in January, 2015 but within 18 remarkable months he shot up to 6ft 4in, which was partly why he played as a lone frontman at times for the reserves last season.

For Class of 92 academy graduate Ben Thornley, the youngster would be ‘Roy Keane’s dream player’ because he ‘never gives the ball away’ – even if he did not initially stand out at reserve team level.

McTominay played as a makeshift striker for the reserves last season

“You don’t realise until you get close to him how tall he is,” he told MEN Sport. “He has a big physique for such a young lad.

“He won’t mind me saying this, but nothing at the time indicated to me ‘Wow, he is going to be a first-team player in a matter of a couple of years’ but what he has done has been consistent for the under-23s and he has gradually worked his way into Jose Mourinho’s plans, being that type of player that maybe he had in Marouane Fellaini before his injury.”

Throughout his time at United, McTominay has had a simple goal at the beginning of each season – play as many games as possible, whatever level he is at.

The 21-year-old has a remarkable determination to improve – constantly asking both Michael Carrick and Nemanja Matic for pointers – and this is a youngster Mourinho can continue to mould in his image. A blank canvas if you like.

This is a player humble enough to listen to his every instruction as Mourinho looks to prove he is no longer ‘the monster that killed the kid’ when it comes to bringing youngsters through.

McTominay is already a firm favourite of Mourinho’s

And United’s fans are roaring McTominay on as he adjusts to a new level – man marking Ever Banega and Eden Hazard did not happen at Leigh Sports Village – where you constantly have to look over your shoulder as a midfielder.

“The fans love it and the energy you get as a young boy coming through in the first team is an amazing feeling,” Thornley added.

“When I made my home debut, there wasn’t as many people inside the stadium because it was the old capacity of 50,000 but it was an amazing experience and you can see by the way he performs he is taking that opportunity and grabbing it with both hands.”

And, yet, despite his new-found fame, McTominay remains that humble kid from Lancaster. You can still spot him at the Giant Axe Stadium with his cap on watching pals like Charlie Bailey playing for Lancaster City Football Club. You may even occasionally see him down the Lune Acqueduct.

Scott McTominay and Sir Alex Ferguson

Indeed, McTominay is one of those pushing for a 10-year reunion with his former classmates at St Wilfrid’s Church of England Primary School – a decade on from leading his side to victory at Wembley in the Community Cup against Caroline Haslett Primary.

The Scot has never forgotten where he has come from and just weeks before he jetted off on his first pre-season tour to Los Angeles, he was helping to open a running track at his old school.

“When he came last June he was surrounded by boys and girls wanting his autograph and he catered for that,” deputy head teacher Mark Grayson told MEN Sport.

“He’s just a nice lad. What some of those players like Nemanja Matic are saying is right. He’s just an unassuming lad who does a job and that was really what Scott was like.”