Journalist and transfer insider Dean Jones believes Manchester United would be within their rights to demand £50m for Scott McTominay should he leave the club this summer.
The 26-year-old has struggled for consistent football this season, starting just ten matches in the Premier League.
However, the Scotland international scored twice for his country against both Cyprus and Spain in the last international break and still ranks in the top 1% for clearances per 90 and the top 4% of aerials won per 90 compared to his positional peers in the top five leagues over the past year.
Manchester United transfer news – Scott McTominay
McTominay has been linked repeatedly with a move away from Old Trafford this summer, and has reportedly told United chiefs to sanction a sale if he is to fall further down the selection pecking order.
Jones has also recently revealed that Newcastle have set their sights on the £78k-per-week ace, as Eddie Howe looks to strengthen their midfield ahead of European football next season.
With the impressive form of Casemiro and Christian Eriksen this season it appears unlikely that McTominay will regain a regular starting spot at United, but Jones believes he would still justify commanding a large fee if he is to depart Old Trafford.
What has Dean Jones said about McTominay’s Man United future?
Speaking in an interview with This is Futbol, Jones argued that the £50m United will reportedly demand for McTominay is justified.
On McTominay’s future, the reliable journalist said:
“I mean, time will tell whether anyone’s willing to pay it. But I don’t think it would be wrong to park him in that £50m bracket.
“If you consider some of the other players that move for that fee and more, or you consider that Caicedo and other Brighton players have been talked about as £60m, £70m players, and Scott McTominay will be able to make a case that he’s been in and around with the biggest clubs in the world for a long time.”
What’s next for Scott McTominay?
If, as Jones believes would be fair, a club like Newcastle is willing to stump up a fee that would convince United to part company with McTominay, then it would mark the end of a love affair with the club whose academy he joined in 2002 as a five-year-old.
Despite his lack of consistent football this season, the Lancashire-born star is still capable of putting in dominating performances – like the one against Leeds after which he was labelled a “physical monster” by then manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Whichever club McTominay is lining up for next season will have a Premier League-proven midfielder who still has his best years ahead of him.