Jamie Carragher has named the “only two options” for Alexander Isak if he leaves Newcastle in the summer.

Isak has enjoyed a brilliant season for the Magpies, scoring 23 goals in all competitions including a brilliant finish in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool to help his side end their 70-year wait for silverware.

His stunning form has drawn a number of admirers, including Arsenal and Liverpool, who are both in need of a new striker next season.

The 25-year-old has three years left on his current deal at St James’ Park and says he’s happy where he is for now, but it’s been suggested that failure to qualify for the Champions League could mean his head is turned at the end of the season.

And Gary Neville claims Newcastle are going to have a fight on their hands to keep hold of Isak, before absurdly naming 13th-placed Manchester United as one of the clubs he would “naturally” want to join.

“They are going to struggle to keep hold of Isak, he is going to want to play somewhere else unfortunately it’s the nature of the beast,” Neville told It’s Called Soccer.

“They will lose those players unfortunately. The reality is Newcastle are a great football club and we didn’t see that any more as we did on Sunday [at the Carabao Cup final].

“But they will want to play for the Real Madrids, Liverpools, Manchester Uniteds and Bayern Munichs of this world, it’s just natural that these players will want to play at those clubs at some point, if they can.”

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Carragher dismissed Neville’s suggestion that United would be in the running for Isak, claiming Arsenal and Liverpool are the only viable suitors for Isak.

“100 per cent I think Isak stays if they qualify for the Champions League, I don’t think they let him go anyway,” Carragher said.

“The problem they do have is if they don’t qualify. It doesn’t really matter what happened in the cup final.

“I think the only two options at the moment would be Arsenal and Liverpool as they’re both sort of crying out for a striker.

“I just look at how long he’s got left on his deal and the ball is in Newcastle’s court, it’s not really in Isak’s. I think once you get [down] to two years [on the contract], it’s almost a 50-50, no-one wants to allow a player to get down to 12 months.

“Newcastle could keep him for another year and say, ‘we’ll see you then as we’re going to get the same sort of money’. I don’t think Newcastle gain anything by selling him now, unless that they have to.

“And that is why, if Newcastle get into the Champions League, there’s no way Isak is leaving the club. even if he wants to. I think the club will say: ‘No, do another 12 months and in a year’s time we can make a few quid and you can move on’.”

The interlull demands content, and thus right now the entire football media landscape has come together as one in an attempt to manifest an outcome to Manchester City’s long-running 115-charge elephant in their bursting-at-the-seams trophy room into existence.

Maybe there will be an announcement soon and they will be relegated or docked one billion points or all their players forced to spend the next seven seasons with their shoes tied together! Or more likely maybe they won’t for ages yet if at all! But maybe they will! Who knows? Not us, that’s for damn sure! So let’s pretend!

How, then, to take advantage of this piping hot news line?

Well, we had great fun a couple of years back with a counterfactual that stripped away all Chelsea’s pots and pans of the Abramovich era when, in one of the biggest and most shocking of Barclays twists, it turned out he might not have been the altruistic good guy we all thought he was.

So let’s do that again, but with every City bauble since their takeover. You’ll be pleased to know our methods will be every bit as subjective this time around, as we set about reallocating all their post-2009 silverware with thorough and dispassionate academic rigour except for the (frequent) times we really want a different specific outcome for our own small and twatty reasons. Enjoy.

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2010/11 FA Cup
City’s first ill-gotten gain of the Abu Dhabi era came with victory over Stoke City at Wembley in the 2011 FA Cup final. Let’s rewrite history. City’s run started with needing a replay to get past Championship Leicester, so it’s the Foxes who take their place in round four where they, like City, get past League One Notts County at the second attempt having been held to a draw at Meadow Lane.

But that’s where the fun ends for Leicester, sadly, as they go down to top-flight Aston Villa in the last 16. Villa then land City’s plum draw in the quarter-finals against the only non-Premier League side left in the competition, Reading. From there it’s a semi-final against Manchester United for the Villans, and the first opportunity to use real-world results to pretend this guff is in some way scientific or in any way valid. United took four points off Villa in 2010/11, so it is they who progress to face Stoke at Wembley. United beat Stoke home and away in the league and thus the first but not the last City bauble makes its way across the city to their hated local rivals.
New winners: Manchester United

2011/12 Premier League
“Agueroooo! I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again. So watch it, drink it in… wait a minute. What’s this? There’s a VAR check apparently and yes, it looks like City’s sponsorship deals are a toenail offside there. It’s cruel for City, but all we can ask for is correct decisions. The goal and indeed the entire season-long battle to create this scenario and with it perhaps the most memorable single moment in the entire history of the Premier League are now struck not just from the record but from existence itself. Manchester United are Premier League champions again.”

Not everything about this brave new City-less world is going to be better. We haven’t even got to Gerrard’s slip yet.
New winners: Manchester United

2012 Community Shield
Right, at this point we have a decision to make. Is our City-less Premier League Universe (PLU) the same one where we’ve already nabbed all Chelsea’s trophies? Or is it a whole other new PLU? Can Chelsea get new trophies here? That doesn’t seem right, but we’re also not entirely sure we can be bothered cross-referencing everything we do here against not one but two alternative versions of reality, only one of which is actual reality. We’ve got our limits. No, really, we have.

So what we’re probably going to do is just any time we find ourselves potentially awarding a trophy to Chelsea simply go with any other option available. Ergo, new 2012 Premier League champions Manchester United take the Community Shield. It’s up to you whether they beat actual 2012 FA Cup winners Chelsea or alternative PLU 1 FA Cup winners Liverpool in the Traditional Hypothetical Season Curtain-Raiser.
New winners: Manchester United

2013/14 Capital One Cup
Fun one, this. In the real world, Wigan got a 5-0 spanking in round three. In our world, Wigan get a bye to round four, but here they fall to Newcastle, who again get the better of second-tier opposition in the form of Leicester in the last eight. That sets up a lovely semi-final between Newcastle and West Ham. Their league games that season give us a perfect template for a two-legged semi-final, and a goalless draw at St James’ Park would appear to give the Hammers the edge, but in January of that season Newcastle went to Upton Park or the Boleyn Ground or whatever they were calling it then and won 3-1.

And that means we’ve got a Capital One final with narrative out the wazoo as Newcastle take on Manchester City’s real-world victims Sunderland. And Sunderland beat Newcastle home and away that season, ergo…
New winners: Sunderland

2013/14 Premier League
City’s malfeasance really does rob of us some iconic moments. We’ve already lost the most dramatic moment of Premier League title history with AGUERRRROOOOOO after-timed out of existence, and now we lose the funniest moment of Premier League title history with Gerrard’s Slip now just a footnote as Brendan Rodgers’ brilliant side buckle and swash their way to Premier League glory to end that long, long wait for another league title.
New winners: Liverpool

2015/16 Capital One Cup
There’s a lot of Capital Ones and Carabaos to go round in this City-free world, a world which is very similar to the world without lawyers that Lionel Hutz imagines in The Simpsons.

The 2014 winners Sunderland benefit again from City’s vanishing, with a 4-1 third-round thrashing now obliterated as they go through to face Palace in the last 16. With four points against Palace that season, Sunderland move on again to the last eight and further success against Championship side Hull. That puts the Black Cats into a semi-final against Everton and it’s a thriller to be fair.

Using as we must their league games for that season as the fairest possible guide, Everton appear to have the tie wrapped up after a 6-2 November win at Goodison but end up holding on grimly for a 6-5 aggregate win after Sunderland’s 3-0 win at the Stadium of Light.

A stone-cold classic and it again sets us up with an absolute doozy of a local derby final between Everton and Liverpool which, obviously, Liverpool win on the basis that the Goodison clash between the two that season ended in its traditional draw while Liverpool secured their equally traditional Anfield victory.
New winners: Liverpool

2017/18 Carabao Cup
West Brom benefit to the tune of a third-round walkover and fourth-round victory with City no longer around, but they come unstuck against Leicester in the last eight. The Foxes get the better of Championship side Bristol City over two legs to reach the final against Arsenal.

In real life, City gave Arsenal a 3-0 schooling at Wembley. In this reality it’s a tough one to call with Arsenal and Leicester both picking up victories over the other during the course of the season. Arsenal’s was by a single goal, however, and in August. Leicester’s 3-1 win in May is clearly the more relevant here, so two years after their fairytale league triumph Leicester also now have a Carabao on the mantlepiece. A great story.
New winners: Leicester

2017/18 Premier League
This is one we fully expect to see actually claimed nay demanded in real life by the new Premier League-winning manager if/when City get sent down. Because that new Premier League-winning manager is Jose Mourinho, who was already weirdly proud of his achievement in finishing 19 points behind Man City and will hardly be quiet about it now.

Mourinho’s side only just squeak home, though. In the actual table they finished four points clear of Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham, but Jose’s United were daft enough to collect three of those points against City. Spurs on the other hand, unlike more recent times, were not so silly as to constantly pick up meaningless points that don’t count against Manchester City. They got righteously spangled home and away which leaves them just a point behind the new champions. Spursy, that.
New winners: Manchester United

2018 Community Shield
Another crossing of the streams in the Chelsea-less and City-less PLUs. In real life, City won the 2018 title and Chelsea the 2018 FA Cup. In our different but only very, very debatably better world, United actually did the double. So that means their Community Shield clash is in fact against Spurs, who are now the 2018 Premier League runners-up. With us? Good.

Now this could be a tricky one to dish out but luckily the 2018 Community Shield took place in August 2018 and the ever-mischievous fixture computer was kind enough to give us a Manchester United v Tottenham fixture in that very month. Seems obvious that this must be the basis for our decision-making here; anything else would be mere pointless guesswork and we’ll have none of that here.

What’s fun about this is that Spurs won that league game at Old Trafford 3-0, so in our reality they’ve won the Community Shield without actually winning a trophy. We’re positively giddy about the imaginary Discourse we’ve just triggered here about what exactly constitutes a ‘major trophy’ but then remembered that actually none of that matters because in this universe Spurs have already won the 2016/17 Premier League title. Starting to think that maybe we should just keep City and Chelsea to be honest.
New winners: Tottenham

2018/19 Carabao Cup
So very many Carabaos. League One Oxford are our recipients of a third-round bye before Fulham sort them out in round four. Next up is Leicester, who took four points off Fulham in the league and thus ease through to the semi-finals here. League One Burton Albion suffer much the same fate against Leicester as they did against City, although probably without the 9-0 bit.

Leicester, who are proving to be unlikely beneficiaries of this new world, go on to face Chelsea in the final. Luckily (for us) we don’t even need to worry about whether Chelsea exist or not because it’s Leicester’s cup anyway. They took four points off a Chelsea team that no longer exists and we’re not going to tie ourselves up in metaphysical quandaries about the merits of that. We’re simply going to congratulate the Foxes on yet another piece of silverware.
New winners: Leicester

2018/19 Premier League
Once we accept the obviously correct position that stripping all City’s honours from 2008-2018 also requires by definition the loss of all subsequent ones until and unless a real world reset wipes the slate clean, then this becomes the easiest of all to reallocate.

It is, quite obviously, Liverpool. We shouldn’t really need to go into too much detail about why it’s Liverpool. They finished one point behind Manchester City and a genuinely ludicrous 27 points clear of anyone else. You can tinker round the edges all you want, you can even criticise our unimpeachably scientific process in some of these decisions if you absolutely must, but this is Liverpool’s title.
New winners: Liverpool

2018/19 FA Cup
Watford were the obliging Wembley victims as City completed the first and yet now non-existent domestic treble. It’s fitting really, because absolutely nobody really talked about it at the time because they didn’t do the Quadruple and that’s all anyone cares about now. Wiping the one and only domestic treble in English football history out of existence feels like it’s something that should cause more of a ripple in the fabric of the game than this. Ah well.

Given Watford wait in the final, it’s surely all eyes on City’s path to see who gets their hands on the grand old trophy now (SPOILER: No it isn’t) with Rotherham reprieved in round three after shipping seven at the Etihad. They go out in round four to Premier League side Burnley, themselves now able to wipe a 5-0 defeat from the record books, with League Two Newport also falling victim to Sean Dyche’s team in the last 16.

On the established basis that Premier League teams always beat Championship teams in the FA Cup, Burnley then sort out Swansea to reach the last four. That sets up an unlikely semi-final against Brighton, and an even unlikelier place in the final for Burnley who took all six points off the Seagulls in the league that season.

And so it’s Burnley v Watford in the most Championship Play-Off Final-looking FA Cup final of the last 40 years and bugger me sideways if it isn’t Watford, with their four points against Burnley, who saunter off with the big prize.
New winners: Watford

2019 Community Shield
It’s Premier League champs Liverpool against FA Cup winners Watford now, so this is easy enough surely? Let’s apply a veneer of rigour, though. Liverpool and Watford met twice in 2019, once in February and once in December and thus roughly equidistant from their hypothetical Wembley curtain raiser in August. Liverpool won those games 5-0 and 2-0, so with pinpoint scientific accuracy we can split the difference and deduce that Liverpool would definitely have won the Community Shield clash 3.5-0.
New winners: Liverpool

2019/20 Carabao Cup
Not another one. Let’s rattle through it. Preston now go through from round three, Southampton go through from round four, and then beat Oxford in the last eight while we question every single life choice that led us to this moment for the second time. Southampton then face Manchester United in the two-legged semi-final and here we hit a snag. Both league games ended all-square, 1-1 at St Mary’s and 2-2 at Old Trafford. Away goals are of no value here, so what can we do?

We must, with some reluctance, head to the league table and give it to third-place United over the mid-table Saints. We’re not happy with this messy way of doing things when we’ve been so careful and precise elsewhere, but hey ho.

United obviously beat Villa in the final. We don’t need science for that. We did worry a bit when we saw a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford but luckily United turned them over 3-0 at Villa Park so that’s sorted.
New winners: Manchester United

2020/21 Carabao Cup
Those who remember the time we wrote 3,000 words just to retrospectively award Spurs the 2016/17 Premier League title might have thought we’d be above doing the same thing just to try and get Ryan Mason a Carabao. Well those people don’t know us very well at all. Of course that’s precisely what we’ve done.

We’ll not bother going through too much rigmarole here since we’ve already decided the outcome. Let’s not get too bogged down in City’s now illegitimate route to the final and who takes their place; they beat Manchester United over two legs in the semis, and it’s reasonable enough to assume United would have taken care of anyone else who came along at that point. “But then is it not reasonable to think United also have too much for Ryan Mason’s Spurs in the final?” Haha, you might make that argument given United ended the season second and Spurs ended it seventh but you’d be horribly, embarrassingly wrong.

This was, after all, the season when Spurs won 6-1 at Old Trafford. You can’t just ignore form-lines like that. And that was with boring old misery meme Mourinho in charge, rather than a likeable 29-year-old former midfielder overseeing his second game. Spurs win this handily because if there’s one thing we know about Spurs it’s that they are good at winning trophies.
New winners: Tottenham

2020/21 Premier League
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Premier League-winning manager. Despite finishing 12 points adrift of City and foolishly picking up four of their 74 points against the now ex-champions, United still finish clear of Liverpool whose disastrous season spent shambling about the place without a defender in sight now at least comes with the consolation prize of finishing second in the Premier League as well as second in the Champions League. What team wouldn’t be happy to finish second to such fine folks as Manchester United and Real Madrid in this shiny new world we’ve created where problematic, hated clubs never win anything?
New winners: Manchester United

2021/22 Premier League
Not quite as straightforward as 2019, but not far off. Liverpool were often City’s most conspicuous victims given the nature of the Klopp-Guardiola rivalry and this was another Premier League season where it was those two, daylight, and then a sorry bunch of stragglers fighting in undignified manner for minor placings and European spots.

Liverpool were once again a solitary point behind the now disgraced City, and while the gap to third-place Chelsea was a bit smaller this time around it was still 18 points. It’s still a heck of a lot. And that’s if Chelsea even exist in this universe, which frankly we can no longer remember and also our head hurts.
New winners: Liverpool

2022/23 Premier League
We won’t lie, we’ve scrambled around desperately here for a way not to give this to Arsenal. One, because it is obviously funnier if they don’t win it, but equally importantly it would be very funny to see the domestic treble, that Sir Alex Ferguson declared impossible and which in this reality has of course never been done because City didn’t do it in 2019, completed by Mr Erik ten Hag.

We’ve tried and tried and tried to finesse the nine-point gap that exists between second-placed Arsenal and third-placed United after removing City from the calculations but we may have to admit defeat. To make matters worse, the nine points we start with balloons to 12 when you consider that Arsenal got slapped silly home and away by Man City while United carelessly beat them 2-1 at Old Trafford.

Maybe Arsenal would simply have bottled it much earlier and even more dramatically had City not been around, but it’s a stretch and even we have a minuscule semblance of professional dignity. Arsenal, then, it must be. Look at the state of them. Celebrating like they’ve hypothetically won the alternate-reality league. Pathetic.
New winners: Arsenal

2022/23 FA Cup
Leg two of the now snapped-from-reality City treble saw them beat United at Wembley to win the FA Cup. But of course we must go right back to January first. They crushed Chelsea 4-0 in the third round, so it’s the beleaguered, hapless Blues who take a place in round four against Arsenal. The Gunners took six points off a truly terrible Chelsea team in the league, so they go into round five.

Now City certainly didn’t have an easy start to this cup run against Chelsea and Arsenal, but from there it took a distinct turn for the straightforward. That’s good as it makes our lives much easier. Few doubts exist that Arsenal would have made their way through Bristol City, Burnley and Sheffield United with the same serenity as City, who won those games 3-0, 6-0 and 3-0 again.

So it’s an Arsenal-United final and a lovely slice of early Barclays nostalgia. And this time we can at least give it to United rather than Arsenal without being too silly about it all. There was a win apiece for the old rivals in the league that season, but United’s Old Trafford win was 3-1 and Arsenal’s at the Emirates was 3-2. Taking the average of those two games, we get a decisive 2.5-2 victory for United at Wembley to gain some revenge for their league disappointment.
New winners: Manchester United

2022/23 Champions League
Fans of our Chelsea retconning may remember that European trophies are fiddly as all f*** in these, so we could really have done without City ending their long wait for continental glory to be honest. Sake.

But we’ve come this far, haven’t we? Might as well soldier on. First and most obviously, we have to go right back to the 2021/22 Premier League table. And there’s good news for Arsenal. We’ve already removed the previous season’s title bottle job from history, now we can go back and excise their top-four bottle job from the year before. In this new world, they merely bottled third place which is nowhere near as bad.

So Arsenal go into the Champions League but we don’t really need to worry about them. Our pressing concern resides with Liverpool, who as the Premier League champions take City’s pot one place and win their group instead of finishing second in a different group as they did in the real world.

As a seeded group winner, Liverpool get City’s RB Leipzig last-16 draw instead of the Real Madrid unpleasantness they endured in real life. That takes them through to a quarter-final against Bayern Munich. Obviously we don’t have as much data for these match-ups as we do for domestic entanglements, and this is not one that throws up an obvious, intuitive victor given both sides’ proud and extensive history in the Big Cup.

But what we do have is a 2018/19 last-16 tie in which Bayern emerged the happier from a goalless first leg at Anfield before Liverpool stunned them 3-1 at the Allianz. That’ll do for us, so Liverpool take their place in the last four. Here, alas, fate takes a Final Destination-style sh*t on the Reds from a great height. They may have survived two more rounds but there is no avoiding that date with Real Madrid destiny. That really quite crushing last-16 defeat in the real world becomes a semi-final defeat in this one, meaning it’s a Mourinho derby in Istanbul as Real take on Inter for the big prize.

Pretty easy this one. Real Madrid have helpfully been in the same Champions League group as Inter twice in the last four seasons. And Real Madrid have won home and away in both seasons. Plus, if it’s a recent Champions League season and you’re in any doubt at all about finding some new winners for it when said winners are not already Real Madrid, then it’s fairly safe to just go with Real Madrid. They really do win it rather a lot.
New winners: Real Madrid

2023 UEFA Super Cup
Seemingly straightforward this one as Real Madrid take on Sevilla, but their 1-1 La Liga draw in October is awkwardly close to the actual date of the Super Cup and makes things slightly difficult. Only slightly, though: Real Madrid have victories over Sevilla in May of that year and February of 2024. They, narrowly, add the least important of UEFA’s pots and pans to their collection.
New winners: Real Madrid

2023 Club World Cup
Let’s not mess about here. We’re very, very tired now. UEFA holds a 16-4 lead over CONMEBOL here, and nobody else has ever had a look in. The Champions League winners have won the last 11 World titles and 16 of the last 17. We are entirely comfortable with simply awarding the 22nd of City’s invalid trophies to Real Madrid and moving on with our lives.
New winners: Real Madrid

2023/24 Premier League
Again, funny as it would be to deny Arsenal in some deeply petty, spiteful and spurious fashion there really is no way of doing so that would invalidate all the rest of this impeccably researched and scientifically sound absolute bollocks.

Arsenal finished two points behind City and seven clear of Liverpool in the real world and it was by the end very much a two-horse race in which Arsenal never really threatened to finish third.

Another added bonus here is that Arsenal fans can stop crying about Spurs fans finding it funny when their own team lost to City. That game and Son Heung-min becoming the first player in the entire history of football not to score quite a good chance are now things that simply no longer exist.
New winners: Arsenal

2024 Community Shield
City won this on penalties against Manchester United on the sacred timeline, but in ours the Community Shield now pits champions Arsenal against FA Cup holders United.

We can split the difference here. Arsenal and United met twice in 2024 – once at Old Trafford in May and again at the Emirates in December. That’s close enough to meet in the middle for an August curtain-raiser while also being fair in terms of venue. Arsenal won both those games. So they win this too.

And so there it is. Manchester United and Liverpool both add three more Premier League titles to their collection now City don’t exist, which is pleasing for doing absolutely nothing to shift the needle on their battle for all-time supremacy. Arsenal get their first two since the Wenger glory days. Leicester get a couple of Carabaos to round out their trophy haul from an improbable era of success, while there’s also justice for Ryan Mason. Watford’s FA Cup win is a nice touch, as is Sunderland’s League Cup, and who among us isn’t happy to see plucky little Real Madrid add to their haul?
New winners: Arsenal

Chelsea are reportedly set to receive ‘opportunistic offers’ from a pair of Bundesliga clubs for Jadon Sancho once he joins permanently, while a return to Manchester United is still possible, but ‘unlikely’.

The Blues’ loan signing of Sancho includes an obligation for them to buy him in the summer for £25million. He has underwhelmed this season, though, so the chances of him getting much playing time there next season could be slim.

In the Premier League, he has two goals and four assists – three assists coming in his first three games – and has not scored or assisted in the last nine games.

As such, Chelsea could decide to sell Sancho immediately after he is signed. Indeed, GIVEMESPORT reports he could depart, with Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen queuing up for the winger.

The pair are said to be monitoring Sancho’s situation ahead of an ‘opportunistic offer’ in the summer.

If Chelsea were to sell, it’s not clear what price they would want, but it might well be around the £25million value they are signing him for.

Another avenue, while said to be ‘unlikely’, is the Blues sending the winger back to United. Indeed, they can cancel their obligation to sign Sancho for a small fee.

While initially reported as a decent percentage of the £25million, the Athletic have reported that it will only cost £5million to say no to the signing.

Doing so would see Chelsea lose more money, while if they sign him, they know there are already sides waiting, who they could make some money from.

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Whether Dortmund would be able to pay his wages is another question. After welcoming him back to the club on loan last season, it was reported one of the reasons they did not then sign him permanently was that they couldn’t afford to pay him.

Their financial situation will not have improved broadly since then, so their struggles could continue. That said, it’s believed they could be forced to sell Jamie Gittens in the summer, and he’ll bring in some good money, which could go towards Sancho.

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Liverpool legend Graeme Souness slams Man Utd over their decision to sell a “high-energy, box-to-box workaholic who chips in with important goals.”

The Red Devils are having a terrible time of it this season with Ruben Amorim’s side currently 13th in the Premier League table after 29 matches.

Man Utd have made numerous bad transfer decisions in the almost 12 years since Sir Alex Ferguson left Old Trafford with a number of big-money signings flopping.

But one of the worst departures in recent years was the sale of Scott McTominay to Napoli for a fee that could reportedly rise to around £25.7m.

And Souness has hit out at the decision to sell the Scotland international and labelled it “an atrocious piece of judgment” from the decision-makers at Man Utd.

Souness told the Daily Mail: “Oh how Manchester United must regret selling Scott McTominay.

“He’s a fantastic modern footballer. A high-energy, box-to-box workaholic who chips in with important goals.

“He was 27 years old and not hurting United with his wages when the club’s ‘decision-makers’ thought it was a bright idea to sell him to Napoli for £25million.

“They’d gone out and spent £58m on an ageing, 30-year-old Casemiro, and paid him £370,000 a week. And another £42m on Manuel Ugarte. Collective transfer fees of £100m.

“Would someone at United please hold their hand up and say, ‘This was my shout.’ Because it’s been an atrocious piece of judgment.

“The perfect example of the mismanagement on an industrial scale at that club since Fergie packed in.

“McTominay has flourished at Napoli. Maybe United should be asking themselves how much it will cost to get him back.”

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Another former Scotland international Pat Nevin agrees with Souness that Man Utd should have kept hold of McTominay or sold him for a higher fee.

Speaking to Casino Hawks, Nevin added: “I think Scott McTominay was worth £50 million before he left Manchester United.

“It was a monster mistake by United. If you asked any Scottish people when he left for £25million, everybody went, you what?

“After what he’d been doing for Scotland after that period he’d had in the team for Manchester United when he suddenly was moved a lot farther forward and showed what he’s good at in his best position.

“I know West Ham wanted him, but I’d have taken him at Chelsea in a heartbeat. Absolutely. I mean, he really has that much quality.

“But apart from anything else from United, he was showing the spirit every single time we walked on that pitch that that club needs, that that club doesn’t have to be anywhere near the level they want.

“You’ve got Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, fabulous players in their time, but their time’s coming up and you’re getting rid of McTominay? That’s just finance. That’s nothing else.

“Is he worth £50m now? Yes. But he was before. I’m delighted for him. I’m not even mildly surprised at how well he’s done in Italy. Not even slightly.”