Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info What a week it has been for Scott McTominay, scorer of three crucial goals for Napoli to reignite Europe's closest title race and further cement his status as a modern-day hero in a city that makes deities out of its footballers. McTominay's mural doesn't yet stand next to Diego Maradona's in Naples, but if he continues to drive the club towards another Serie A triumph, the worship will go up a notch. The Scot scored twice in the 3-0 win against Empoli on Monday and then scored the only goal of the game on Sunday as Napoli won away at Monza, drawing level with Inter at the top of the table with six games to go. McTominay has the same number of non-penalty goals in Serie A this season as Napoli striker Romelu Lukaku. The man quickly nicknamed 'Braveheart' and given a hero's reception on his arrival in the city last summer has become a fans' favourite and a favourite of coach Antonio Conte and his teammates. This was the praise afforded to him on Sunday from Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo. “He’s helping us a lot. He’s a great player. But we knew that," Di Lorenzo said. "What maybe we didn’t know was what type of impact he would make right away. We’re enjoying it. He’s an extraordinary kid.” McTominay's former club could use some of that impact now. The club he spent 22 years representing and reluctantly left last summer has endured a dismal season, one that could only be rescued by winning the Europa League. If Manchester United do go on to triumph in Bilbao in May, it will grant them a backdoor entry to the Champions League and a potential reunion with McTominay. If he returns as a champion of Italy, he will have played as big a role as anyone in that Napoli squad to make it happen. There may be a wish to put McTominay in the same category as many of the other players that have left United recently and then seen their careers take an upward trajectory. Think Antony and Marcus Rashford in January, Anthony Elanga at Nottingham Forest, or Aaron Wan-Bissaka briefly at West Ham. However, McTominay's case is different for a couple of reasons. Many of these players thrived in environments where the spotlight isn't as harsh as Old Trafford. McTominay moved to one of the few cities even more obsessed with its football teams than Manchester. Naples is an intense place to play. Also, McTominay's game hasn't improved since leaving United. He was at this standard while still at his boyhood club. He was outstanding last season but consistently underappreciated, a classic case of an academy player often overlooked in favour of big-money signings. The 28-year-old's physical attributes don't excite like a tricky winger or goalscoring forward coming through the academy. He would often become a lightning rod for criticism, not helped by successive managers seeing him as a defensive midfielder, rather than a box-crashing, all-action No.8, the role he is thriving in under Conte. He would probably fit Ruben Amorim's system as a No. 10, but we never got the chance to find out. Erik ten Hag was one of those managers who didn't see McTominay's strengths, trying to sell him in 2023, only for him to then produce his best-ever season at the club. By the time he was sold to Napoli for a meagre £25million last summer, Ten Hag knew it was a mistake, but United's struggle to comply with the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) forced his hand. "I’m very happy for Scott," Ten Hag said in October. "As I said, when he left, I didn’t want this but that’s the rules the club had to deal with. The rules are, I would even say, bad, but that’s the situation created. It forced us to make this decision." Ten Hag had a point in that the rules are "bad". We saw that last summer when clubs desperate to avoid PSR breaches traded academy players among themselves to game the system. It's turned academy players into commodities to be sold rather than giving clubs an incentive to play their young players, and United took the decision to sell McTominay because he is considered pure profit, as all academy players are. This summer, they could face a similar dilemma, especially if they don't secure Champions League qualification. The absence of European football could cost more than £100million in lost revenue, which would be disastrous for a club in such a perilous financial position. That could mean listening to offers for Kobbie Mainoo or Alejandro Garnacho again, something they were open to in January. It would be a short-term boost to the coffers and ease those PSR concerns, but would it really be worth it? McTominay's example should make the club think again. On and off the pitch, he would have played a valuable role this season. Instead, he is thriving for Napoli, as almost everyone knew he would.