The scramble between England and Scotland for Scott McTominay has intensified, with the managers of both national teams poised to make personal representations to secure the youngster.
Alex McLeish, freshly installed as Scotland manager, is seeking a meeting with McTominay and can offer him the chance to be part of the new squad he wants to build.
Meanwhile, England boss Gareth Southgate is due at Manchester United’s AON training complex this week for a routine visit and McTominay is expected to be part of his discussions with Jose Mourinho.
The Scottish Football Association and Football Association technical directors, Malky Mackay and Dan Ashworth, are also involved in keeping up their countries’ overtures towards a player whose big impact on United’s season has taken many by surprise.
McTominay, who only turned 21 in December, has made 14 appearances for his club in 2017-18 and kept United’s record £89m signing, Paul Pogba, out of their starting line-up in Wednesday’s Champions League knockout game away to Sevilla.
He was given a new contract in October after impressing Mourinho, who lavished praise in Seville on McTominay’s mature performances in midfield. A late developer in the junior ranks, who shot up belatedly to stand 6ft 4in, McTominay has not been capped at any representative level - but with Scotland and England preparing for full and age-level internationals next month that appears certain to change.
McTominay’s choice is whether to play for the country where he was born and raised, which is England, following a childhood in Lancaster - or go with the nation of his heritage. Both his parents are Scottish, as are all his grandparents. He is thought to, instinctively, “feel English”, but has not made up his mind.
In the camp trying to edge him towards Scotland is United’s director and club ambassador, Sir Alex Ferguson. Mourinho has ideas on who he should play for and recently said that perhaps Scotland should cap McTominay “because it looks like England is missing him”. However the Portuguese refused to spell out which country he believes McTominay should play for when asked on Friday.
“I’ve given him my advice but I think the advice of his parents is more important than mine. His own heart is more important than my advice, because mine is purely from a career point of view,” Mourinho said.
“More important than his career is his feeling, his family’s feeling and also the overall situation with him. He’s going to have a very good career independently of his international choice – if he has the choice, because maybe Scotland or England don’t want to select him, which is also possible. The most important thing is for him to feel good with himself.”
McTominay is expected to continue in midfield - alongside Pogba - when United face Chelsea at Old Trafford today. In Seville, where he hugged a television reporter who asked him a positive question about McTominay, Mourinho outlined his faith in the midfielder. “The confidence and trust I show towards Scott, he earned it since day one, since he came to the first-team training sessions step by step with a lot to learn and a long way to go.
“Even now I would say that he has a lot to learn but since the first moment he was learning. That is the way to perform and of course he will have bad matches and make mistakes and be on the bench and not be selected, but I know when I want him to play I know the kind of mentality, the player I am developing. I know the qualities that will make him a really good player.”
England’s assistant manager, Steve Holland, will watch McTominay in action at Old Trafford this afternoon while Southgate is at Wembley for Emirates Marketing Project’s joust with Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final.