Michail Antonio has weighed in on Scott McTominay’s current situation at Manchester United and West Ham United’s reported summer interest.
The Scotland international endured a season of limited game time in the 2022/2023 campaign, which was largely due to Casemiro and Christian Eriksen’s arrivals at Old Trafford in the summer.
Now that Mason Mount and Sofyan Amrabat have also been added to Erik ten Hag’s disposal, it’s seen McTominay fall even further in the pecking order. United fended off interest from the Irons in the transfer window, rejecting a £30 million bid for the Carrington graduate, but he has since been used as a rotational, off-the-bench player.
McTominay, 26, has started two games this term and has been granted a further four appearances as a substitute, his latest of which saw him net two injury-time goals to seal a much-needed win against Brentford. Whether or not his heroics will be enough to see him start in tomorrow’s game remains to be seen.
Antonio on McTominay
Antonio gave his verdict when speaking on The Footballer’s Football Podcast, saying: “Obviously you see the qualities that he has and everything that he brings to the team. A few games last year, you could see how well he is and the position that he plays. Obviously, we wanted to take him in the summer.
“He definitely has the qualities to play in the Premier League, it’s just every manager has their philosophy and the way they want to play. It’s one of those things that in football, managers just feel you are the one for them or not. Sometimes you outlive a manager, sometimes you don’t.
“It’s just whether he’s willing to stay around to see what happens – whether he’s going to get some more actual minutes and keep pushing himself – or this season might be the season where he doesn’t see himself outliving him [Ten Hag] and moving on somewhere else to show what he can do. Coming off the bench and giving them their win like that, that’s the best way to show the qualities that you have and what you bring to the team.”
