Scott McTominay reveals Jose Mourinho as the manager who will always be special to him | OneFootball

Every manager that has been at Manchester United has seen their tenure end in misery and defeat, leading to an eventual departure.

However, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any high points in their tenures. Even David Moyes started off by winning the Community Shield!

The players similarly hold some managers in higher regard than the others, even more so if the person in the dugout kickstarted their careers.

No wonder, then, that Scott McTominay picked Jose Mourinho as the manager who will always be special to him.

In an interview with FourFourTwo, McTominay said Mourinho will always be “a hero of mine” and he will be “forever grateful for what he did for me”.

The Scotland international revealed that even his grandparents “love” Mourinho and they have a picture in their house of McTominay standing alongside the Portuguese on his debut.

He said: “They loved him because he gave me that moment. He gave me that initial opportunity, so he will always be a hero of mine. I’ll be forever grateful for everything that he did for me.”

It doesn’t come as a surprise how highly the United midfielder rates Mourinho as he remains the one and only winner of the “Manager’s Player of the Season” award!

Mourinho memorably invented the award after a season for the sole purpose of recognising McTominay’s efforts for him and till the end, when the dressing room turned toxic, the player remained as one of his trusted lieutenants.

McTominay lifted the lid on how the then-manager helped him navigate senior football in the beginning.

He said: “I remember that when I first started training with the first team, I got into an argument with a couple of the senior players over the way a small-sided game was going.

“I was only 17 or 18 at the time, but I wasn’t happy that our team was losing and maybe I went too far. Jose pulled me aside and said, ‘You can’t speak to the senior professionals like that.’ He told me that they would respect me for standing up for myself and having that fire in the belly, but I had to get them onside first.

“I think he knew my reaction came from a good place – because I wanted to do well. It gave me a lot to think about when I went back to my digs that night.”

Multiple managers have come and gone since Mourinho but McTominay has remarkably emerged as a player who has been a trusted presence for every single one of them.

Perhaps that growth and personality is what Mourinho embedded in him when he was starting out in football which is why he holds a special place in his heart.

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