McTominay Reveals How Mourinho Berated Him During His Early Days With The Senior Team

Scott McTominay has revealed that he was heavily criticised by Jose Mourinho during one of his earliest first-team training sessions.

The young midfielder broke out of Manchester United‘s youth academy and established himself as a regular in the senior squad under the Portuguese manager during the 2017-18 season.

In fact, Mourinho was left very impressed with the Scottish international – so much so, that Jose handed McTominay a special Manager’s Player of the Year award during his debut campaign with the first team.

But now, the 21-year-old has revealed that it wasn’t always smooth sailing for him under the former gaffer, as he was on the receiving end of some serious hammering during his very early days with the main squad.

RELATED:

https:/2019/04/21/wilfried-zaha-claims-manchester-united-tried-to-break-him-and-destroy-his-career/

“Jose was amazing for me,” McTominay admitted (via the Times). “Though when I first came in Jose gave me a serious, serious b******ing.

“I was arguing with one of the first-team lads in training and he said ‘hey, kid, when you come into the first team, the other players — they have to like you. You’re not a superstar’, and I drove back to digs thinking ‘have I just ruined it for myself?’

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought ‘I hope he knows I don’t think I’m a star, I’m the polar opposite.’ He probably just wanted to see what I was made of, what sort of lad he had on his hands.

“You’re liked by what you do on the pitch and how you are off the pitch and I feel Mourinho saw something in me at a time some people did and some people didn’t, and I’m grateful.”