Scott McTominay has “goals in his blood” according to Antonio Conte.
The Napoli star has hit the ground running since making the switch to Serie A from Manchester United. McTominay scored his first goal for the Neapolitans in last week’s Coppa Italia win over Palermo and started Sunday night’s 2-0 league triumph over Monza.
After topping the Scotland scoring charts for Euro 2024 qualification and netting our only goal during a miserable fianls experience, McTominay was back on target for his country in the Nations League with a fine header to put Steve Clarke’s men 1-0 up in Lisbon before a second half turn around capped by a late Ronaldo winner. And Napoli boss Antonio Conte reckons goalscoring is part of his new midfielder’s DNA. “Scott is a player who has goals in his blood; he’s very good at making runs into the box,” he said. “He has excellent technical qualities, as well as an important physical stature. And he’s strong in the air. In his DNA, he has quite a few goals.”
Meanwhile, former Celtic hero Paolo Di Canio admits he can’t believe Manchester United sold Scotland star Scott McTominay for £30 million….and paid £50 million for Manuel Ugarte. Di Canio – who made quite an impact during his year at Parkhead in season 1996/97 and is now an Italian TV pundit – can’t believe United’s hapless under-pressure Dutch boss Erik ten Hag sanctioned the sale and paid almost double McTominay’s fee for Uruguayan flop Ugarte.
He said: “How can you sell Scott McTominay for £30 million and sign Ugarte for £50 million? He is used to Lisbon. He was excellent there for two years, but the Premier League is another thing. In Manchester, it was 10 degrees, it’s been raining for ten days, in Lisbon it’s 25. The truth is that Ten Hag doesn’t like British players, he doesn’t buy any British players. Last year he bought Rasmus Hojlund, this season Joshua Zirkzee, who has a physicality that works well in Italy.
“Tottenham instead bought Dominic Solanke, who is a good player, nothing sensational but a good player. I’m sorry to see ten Hag in great difficulty, but he hasn’t learned anything from these two years. When they concede a goal, they don’t react, nobody raises their heads, nobody talks to each other.”