Manchester United and Erik ten Hag will be thankful they managed to keep hold of Scott McTominay this season.
He looked destined for West Ham alongside Harry Maguire in the summer, who coincidentally have been two of Manchester United‘s most important first-team squad members this season.
Scott McTominay has been at Carrington for basically his entire life. A product of the academy, the 27-year-old has had many a manager over the years at Old Trafford.
This includes during his rise to fame in the youth ranks, where one man made an indelible mark on the Scotsman as a player.
Scott McTominay on Warren Joyce
In his first-ever podcast appearance, the 27-year-old sat down with Jake Humphries on the ‘High-Performance Podcast‘ to discuss all things Manchester United.
What many don’t know about McTominay is he was always quite stunted growing up. Despite standing tall at 6’4 today, the Scot had a very late growth spurt, which led to him not being a first-choice for some of the youth sides. He rarely played when he was 16/17, which he reflected on in the podcast.
“I just didn’t really understand what was going on,” McTominay begins. “I can’t really put it into words, I was just more concentrated on going to the gym and improving myself that way. To be honest, I didn’t even notice I wasn’t really playing as much as the other lads.
“Then there was the time when you take a stretch when you’re about 18 and I got to the height I am today. Then I got through to the reserves and got to grips with Warren Joyce. I don’t know if you know him. He transformed me.”
Joyce was the reserves team manager when McTominay was in United’s youth ranks and is still known to this day for being one of the best academy coaches around.
Despite Jose Mourinho ultimately giving the £60,000 p/w star his debut, Joyce was the man to ‘transform’ McTominay into the player he is today.
Where is Warren Joyce now?
We know how the story ended for McTominay – but where is Joyce now? Well, Joyce is currently the head coach of Nottingham Forest’s U21 squad – who faced off with Manchester United not too long ago.
He returned to Old Trafford as manager of Nottingham Forest’s youth team in May 2022 in the FA Youth Cup Final – where United emerged 3-1 victors.
After the final, Joyce spoke with Manchester United club media about McTominay and the player he’s developed into.
“Scott McTominay is not just a worker. He’s got talent as well. You can’t just be a worker to play for Manchester United. They’ve got talent as well and those things that I said, those characteristics are evident in the Nottingham Forest first team this season, the culture the manager has created is fantastic. They’ve got that in abundance, those type of people throughout the football club.”
A lot of this was his doing. What an excellent coach Joyce is.
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