Manchester United have lost some very talented footballers over the past few years, however, there is one player Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes can’t believe departed.
While recent years have seen Ineos improve in terms of recruitment, the decisions on which players to sell has been disappointing.
Manchester United have let go of some extremely talented players who would be key for Ruben Amorim right now.
One glaring example of this was United letting Alvaro Fernandez depart for just £5m, as he is now a star for Real Madrid worth 10 times that amount.
Speaking about bad decisions, there is one player neither Nicky Butt or Paul Scholes can believe was allowed to leave.
Manchester United should never have sold Scott McTominay
In 2024, United sold Scott McTominay for £25m, a fee which looking back sees the Red Devils utterly ripped off.
McTominay was nominated for the Ballon d’Or in 2025, having been the Serie A MVP for Napoli in their title winning campaign.
The sale happened to fund Manuel Ugarte’s arrival, which makes the decision look even worse.
Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes have been speaking to The Times, and the decision to sell McTominay was once again a fiercely contested call.
“Scott would have run through a brick wall for United,” Butt says.
“He knows the DNA of that football club, and I would guess he was getting paid 50 per cent less than the one they brought in [Ugarte], and he is nowhere near the level of Scott McTominay.
“Scott’s not your highest earner, he’s not going to kill the wage structure, he’s not going to kill the dressing room, you keep him at all costs.”
In agreement, Scholes nodded his head, adding: “Look, I’m not saying you’re going to win the Premier League if he’s in your midfield every week, but he’s the type of player that you always have around the place.”
Scott McTominay would have excelled under Ruben Amorim
While never really fitting into Erik ten Hag’s plans outside of McTominay being a super sub, scoring off the bench in his final season for United on numerous occasions.
However, with Ruben Amorim, McTominay would have been perfect.
In one of the two ten positions, Amorim would have loved a player with McTominay’s quality, being a physical and attacking threat in attacking midfield, and he would have negated the need for Matheus Cunha.
McTominay could have been a future captain for United, however, Ineos’ short-sighted decision to sell him sees regret, which has hopefully been learned from.
Carrington is usually a better source of talent than a signing from across Europe, McTominay and Ugarte are the perfect example of this.
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