Former Manchester United players Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku linked up well for Napoli.
The pair are now plying their trade in Naples after McTominay made a permanent move – worth around £25m. Former United forward Lukaku joined the southern Italians after a poor second spell at Chelsea.
The Premier League connections do not stop there, though. Former Premier League-winning manager Antonio Conte is at the helm and has taken to life swimmingly at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
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In Thursday’s Coppa Italia clash against Palermo the former United pair were introduced on 76 and 77 minutes. With his first action of the match, Lukaku outwitted a defender wide on the right flank before firing a perfectly weighted ball toward the marauding McTominay who swept the ball past the Palermo goalkeeper – they had been on the pitch for less than a minute.
Last weekend, the Scottish midfielder had already gained plaudits from the Italian media for his showing against Juventus in Turin during a hard-fought 0-0 draw. Speaking after the match, the former United man, spoke about how he has taken to life in Italy, he said: “Italian is not easy, because I speak fast, but whenever I listen to people in Italian, they speak very fast! Over the last 2-3 weeks, I picked up little bits in training sessions, the hotel, in the city.
“Hopefully when I have my own house here I will get a tutor to help me, as I want to understand everything that the coach and teammates are saying. It’s a great life skill to have, learning a different language.”
He added: My dream right now is to win the championship with Napoli, win trophies, do my absolute best to help the team, strive forwards and really push my career on.
“I want to train to the maximum capabilities for the rest of my career, which hopefully will be a long time,” McTominay concluded.
In Serie A, Napoli currently sit second behind Torino after five games. At United, McTominay was considered a number ‘eight’ who could get up and down the pitch – regularly seen flying into tackles as well as scoring some crucial goals. However, since he arrived in Italy, Conte has utalised his attacking assets allowing him to be in the ‘number 10’ role behind the striker. So, was using McTominay as a box-to-box midfielder wrong?
There is no direct answer to the question, as it would have been frowned upon if Bruno Fernandes, or even Mason Mount was omitted from an Old Trafford starting XI with the Scot coming in to replace them. Although his transfer will have helped United fall in line with Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR), United may rue his departure going forward. Most managers he has played under have praised the midfielder, but he may have fallen into the trap of not being ‘trendy’ enough to become a fixture in the United side.
For now, he looks at home in Italy but time will tell if this was a mistake from United’s perspective.
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