Anyone who watched Manchester United go down pitifully to Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend couldn’t fail to see the glaring deficiencies across their team, but one of the most obvious was their lack of a dynamic, box-to-box midfielder.
Someone who could provide a goal threat from the middle of the park, while having the physical attributes, presence and defensive diligence to add plenty of value going the other way too.
In other words, someone exactly like Scott McTominay.
Steve Clarke then isn’t the only one slightly grasping for an explanation as to why the fallen giant of English football seems to have made another monumental strategic blunder in allowing McTominay – a player who has become something of a talisman for his country - to slip from their grasp.
“It's not my team, that's for sure,” said Clarke, with a nod to his firm allegiance to Chelsea.
“It's really difficult to know the circumstances behind their decision to let Scott leave.
“I would imagine it's got a lot to do with financial fair play and balancing the books, because academy grown players are more valuable to the club than bought players. I would imagine it's something like that.
“Without knowing the ins and outs of it, it's difficult for me to get too involved in it.”
In truth, McTominay seems to never have been fully appreciated – or perhaps more accurately, never fully utilised - during his time at Old Trafford, with the outpouring of affection from the Man United supporters towards the Scotland internationalist following his departure not entirely reflective of his standing while he was a Red Devil. Until very recently, at least.
There is no doubting his importance to his country or the hero worship that he now enjoys whenever he pulls on the dark blue of Scotland, with his incredible scoring record provoking unending songs of endearment from the Tartan Army.
United’s loss can be very much the gain of both his new club Napoli and for the national team, according to Clarke, who is eager to see how the move to Naples can help further develop McTominay and his international teammate Billy Gilmour, now also playing his football at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
“I just look at them as two of our players going out on a new adventure,” he said.
“Obviously, Scott’s had a fantastic start. Billy got a game in the Coppa Italia, which was good. Played the whole game, looked good, looked fresh. So, that's good.
“I like the fact that the players now are prepared to go abroad. They're not afraid of that challenge. I think going to a club like Napoli, with the fan base that they've got, it's going to be a good challenge for both of them.”
And a good platform for the development of Scottish talent as a whole over recent times, with Scots now dotted around Serie A and thriving.
“It seems to be,” said Clarke.
“Obviously, those two boys are there. Lewis (Ferguson) has done really well. Che Adams has gone out there and started well for his new club, Torino. Aaron Hickey had a good spell there. Josh Doig is out there playing Serie B, but playing in Italy.
“So, it looks as though, at the moment, it's somewhere the Scottish boys like to go. Hopefully, they can go there and improve their performances and do well for us.”
McTominay and Gilmour may be shoo-ins to be starting (if fit) against Croatia and Portugal in the forthcoming Nations League matches, but there was a slightly unfamiliar look about the fringes of Clarke’s squad that he announced yesterday, with stalwarts like John McGinn and Scott McKenna missing through injury.
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The presence of fresh faces like Nicky Devlin, Liam Lindsay and Andy Irving was welcomed by the Scotland manager though, and he doesn’t foresee any disruption to the implementation of the new ideas he is trying to impart to his players after their disappointing European Championship campaign.
The backlash from the Euros centred mostly around the negative tactics employed by Clarke rather than the results that saw his side eliminated at the group stage yet again, and there were signs of a more positive outlook in the last Nations League camp despite defeats to Poland and Portugal.
It is a path Clarke hopes they can continue down.
“Hopefully you can put layer upon layer every time you get together as you're trying to change the system or tweak the system a little bit maybe in the upcoming games,” he said.
“Credit to my two coaches, John Carver and Alan Irvine, who worked a lot with the lads on the short training time that we got on the pitch the last time.
“We'll have a little bit more this time. We get together on Monday, which gives us Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to work on the training pitch, which gives us a little bit more time and hopefully we can put a few more layers on in what we're trying to do.
“[We’re trying] just to give the lads confidence to know that they can play different systems, to know that they can hurt the opposition, and I think a big part of that was to go away to Portugal and take the lead. It's a big thing, it's a big thing for belief.
“What we have to learn to do then is to see out the game, which we didn't manage to do. We haven't managed to do that in recent games because we've lost quite a lot of late goals, so it's something that we have to work on.
“Maybe I can help a little bit from the tactical side off the bench, and maybe the lads need to just find a little bit of mental resilience going into the last 10 minutes of games to realise that sometimes you have to settle for what you've got, and not give the game away.”
