MANCHESTER UNITED star Scott McTominay has lifted the lid on his brutal first training session with Jose Mourinho.
The midfielder was just 20 years old when he got his big break at Old Trafford.
AFP or licensorsScott McTominay has lifted the lid on his brutal first training session under Jose Mourinho[/caption]
McTominay, now 27, burst onto the scene in the 2016/17 season under Mourinho – who was sacked by Roma yesterday.
And he has since gone on to score 25 goals in 233 games for the Red Devils.
But McTominay initially feared he had blown his chance at becoming a Man United great in his very first training session.
The 47-time Scotland international was first called up by Mourinho seven years ago during an international break.
With plenty of senior stars away, McTominay was left to mix it with veterans like Michael Carrick and Ashley Young.
But the powerhouse refused to shy away during a practice match, and got into arguments with the senior pair – as well as the in-house referee.
It prompted a serious dressing-down from Mourinho, who left McTominay fearing the worst.
The ace told the High Performance Podcast: “When I first went over, maybe at the start of the 2017 season, I was going over to train with Jose and there were a lot of lads on international break.
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“Refs [in training] are always a little bit biased to the first team vs the young lads, and I was losing my temper, raising my voice a little bit too much.
“It’s probably the right thing to do but also wrong thing to do. I was arguing with some of the older players – Carrick and Young.
“I was just saying, ‘You’re getting all the decisions, no wonder we’re losing’.
“Mourinho spoke to me and said, ‘You need them to like you, you can’t make them think you’re a ******’.
“He dressed me down to be fair and said, ‘Who do you think you are, you’ve done nothing’.”
On the contrary, McTominay later discovered that Mourinho had actually LOVED his brave attitude.
I owe him a great deal and my family love him
Scott McTominay
The United man continued: “It turned out a couple of months down the line, the fitness coach told me, ‘Jose was just testing you out’, and I knew it.
“It was nice to hear and that he was trying to test the group.”
McTominay paid tribute to Mourinho for giving him his debut later that season.
He added: “You just can’t get carried away because you can get humbled so quick. I was lucky he came and gave me my chance.
“I owe him a great deal and my family love him. When I was going to play for Scotland, because I always wanted to play for Scotland for my grandpa, Jose was always saying, ‘Go with your heart, I’m always here for any decisions to talk about’.
“As he was leaving, I walked into his office. I was gutted. It was hard, like, this guy meant so much to me and gave me all my dreams and now he’s gone.
“I just said, ‘Thank you so much for the opportunity, you’ve been a real life legend for me. Good luck for what you do next’.
“We’ve kept in touch since, I’m so grateful for him. The power of self-belief, he instilled that in me.”
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