Man United's biggest transfer mistake under Ineos finally exposed with brutal £25m regret

In the same week that Manchester United fell short in the Europa League final, Scott McTominay rounded-off a sensational debut season in Italy by winning the Serie A title.

McTominay said farewell to Old Trafford last summer after coming through their academy. Napoli paid £21million for his services with a potential £4.2m in add-ons. Under 12 months later, it proved to be one of the best transfers of the season.

The midfielder scored 29 goals in 255 games for United - despite being played outside of his natural position at times. This season, he has bagged 13 goals and, on Friday night, he scored the first in Gli Azzurri's 2-0 win against Cagliari, crowning them champions of Italy.

Napoli, who won the Serie A title in 2023 owing in the main to Victor Osimhen's goals, have turned a page under Antonio Conte. The signings of David Neres, Romelu Lukaku, McTominay and Billy Gilmour all had question marks over them, although they no longer exist now.

At the time, a switch to Naples made sense for both McTominay and United. Manuel Ugarte arrived to boost Erik ten Hag's midfield from Paris Saint-Germain - after it was established that more "grit" was needed in the middle of the park.

The Uruguay international has done well in his first season but Ruben Amorim - who didn't sign him but worked with him at Sporting CP - kept him places on the bench on Wednesday night. McTominay wouldn't look amiss in this United team.

"When I got into the first team, I was quite mis-profiled in where I was playing," he said in an interview with The Athletic. "It wasn't the fault of any coaches. My strengths have always been getting into the box, scoring goals, being a problem in there. But I was being used as a No.6, or as a centre-back, and that