Scott McTominay has rejected talk of a return to Manchester United and set out a clear intention to remain at Napoli. The midfielder, who has been reshaped under Antonio Conte, said he is fully focused on his current club and could see himself staying there for an extended period.<\/p>\n
Conte has overseen a significant change in McTominay\u2019s game since his arrival. Crowned Serie A\u2019s Player of the Year after a debut campaign that finished with the title, McTominay has again reached double figures this season despite operating in a deeper role and playing almost the entire campaign while partially injured. That consistency has come at a time when Manchester United have collectively struggled, prompting speculation about a possible homecoming for the Lancaster lad.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy agent has not communicated with anyone regarding my future,\u201d McTominay told Corriere dello Sport this week. \u201cHe only speaks with me and with the club. He hasn\u2019t said anything to the newspapers. I am extremely happy here and, as far as I am concerned, I am a Napoli player; it is all I think about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future is very important, and I could see myself in Napoli for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is an old Italian saying: La minestra riscaldata non \u00e8 mai buona. Reheated soup is never good. The sentiment is used here to underline the idea that a return to a former club is not always the best path.<\/p>\n
Napoli\u2019s injury problems have required McTominay to adopt a more measured role this term, yet his box-to-box instincts remain an asset. Napoli\u2019s coach celebrated that evolution earlier in the season. \u201cIn this year and a half, [McTominay] became a complete player,\u201d Napoli\u2019s coach boasted earlier this year. \u201cWhen I was in England and faced him as an opponent, I always saw his quality, but always one part of his quality\u2014especially to attack the box and score.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, we worked with him on the buildup and construction, and I tried [with] difficulty also to transform him into a complete player. He now plays with [Stanislav] Lobotka as two midfielders, and he has improved a lot in the buildup. At the same time, he has never lost the possibility to attack, to be a box-to-box player. Now he is, in my opinion, a really, really top player for an important club.\u201d<\/p>\n
McTominay is 29 and under contract until the summer of 2028. Napoli have shown resistance to Premier League financial pressure, and any move to bring their former No. 39 back to Manchester would require a significant outlay. For now, McTominay\u2019s public position is unambiguous: Napoli is where his attention lies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
McTominay rejects United return, says he is focused on Napoli and could stay ‘for a long time’ today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1028,1163],"tags":[1081,983,1162],"class_list":["post-7016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-napoli","category-transfers","tag-adaptation","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}