McTominay finishes 18th in Ballon d’Or to expose Ferdinand’s Man Utd claim over 13th and 27th best
Scott McTominay is officially the 18th best player in world football. He’s better than Jude Bellingham. He’s better than Erling Haaland. He’s better than Virgil van Dijk. He’s sure as sh*t better than any Manchester United player.
Perhaps Rio Ferdinand should reflect on how after one season away from Old Trafford, he’s better than Declan Rice and only slightly worse than Harry Kane, who may not have been the pairing to cure all of United’s ills after all.
In fairness to Ferdinand, he was against United selling McTominay to Napoli, although his steady Eddie reasoning hasn’t aged well after the Scot was named Serie A MVP in his debut season under Antonio Conte.
“I look at Scott McTominay and not every player can be a star, a standout player,” Ferdinand said. “But to win the league you need the likes of John O’Shea, Wes Brown, Darren Fletcher.
“They might not start every game but they were huge, you need those players and most of them know the DNA of the club, especially ones who have come through the academy, there’s a lot to be said for that. It really doesn’t sit well with me.
“With McTominay you know what you’re getting. He might not always be a nine out of 10 but invariably he’s a solid seven out of 10 and sometimes he will be an eight out of 10 and get you a goal.”
But the pundit recently fell into a trap which has claimed many a Manchester United stakeholder in the last decade or so, in claiming that issues can be solved by spending a couple of hundred million on two very good footballers.
“I honestly think and I’m convinced that if Man United would have got Harry Kane and Declan Rice in that window, they’re in a different place now. It goes back to the environment, those two drive an environment I think because they’re two top pros.”
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There’s no doubt that Kane and Rice improve Manchester United, but Tottenham finished eighth in Kane’s last season for them despite his 30 goals in that campaign. Rice led West Ham to the Conference League title but a 14th-place Premier League finish. There’s only so much one man can do for a football club failing to meet expectations, or in this specific Ferdinand-imagined case, what two men can do at Manchester United.
And based on the admittedly arbitrary Ballon d’Or ranking of all footballers in every position which sees McTominay placed between Rice in 27th and Kane in 13th, neither of those potential saviours would have had anything like the impact for the Red Devils that they’re currently having at Arsenal and Bayern Munich respectively.
Old Trafford would most likely have smothered them as it did McTominay and the several others escapees enjoying their football in pastures new.
Ballon d’Or rankings from 30-11
30.​ Michael Olise, 29. Florian Wirtz, 28. Virgil van Dijk, 27. Declan Rice, 26. Erling Haaland, 25. Denzel Dumfries, 24. Fabian Ruiz, 23. Jude Bellingham, 22. Alexis Mac Allister, 21. Serhou Guirassy, 20. Lautaro Martinez, 19. Joao Neves, 18. Scott McTominay, 17. Robert Lewandowski, 16. Vinicius Jr., 15. Viktor Gyokeres, 14. Desire Doue, 13. Harry Kane, 12. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, 11. Pedri.
