The lowdown on Scotland trio in Serie A

BBC News

09-04-2025

Scott McTominay is the "perfect player" for Napoli boss Antonio Conte, according to Italian football expert Carlo Garganese.The Scotland international, who joined the Serie A side from Manchester United last summer, has scored seven goals from midfield in an impressive first season in Italy."McTominay has been one of the first names on the team sheet all season," Garganese told BBC Scotland."He's been superb. He's been the perfect Conte player. He's all-action, enjoys late runs into the box, has a great shot, great finisher and he's really good in the air."He's settled in well and loves Italy. He did a great interview last week actually saying how much he loves the place."He loves the food. He made a reference to how much he's fallen in love with eating tomatoes. He said in Scotland that they're just red water!"So that was a really nice story and the fans loved it."Garganase, who co-hosts the Italian Football Podcast, has also backed McTominay's international team-mate Billy Gilmour to make a bigger impact next season."He's been unlucky because Conte has used a midfield three of McTominay, Stanislav Lobotka and Frank Anguissa, and once he's got a first choice XI, he sticks with them," added Garganase. "They played basically every game until about a month ago when Anguissa got injured."Gilmour then came into the team, he played a few games in a row and he played really well. He was outstanding actually."I think he's won Conte's trust. He's still not a first-choice player, but I think he's fourth in that pecking order."And if you look ahead to next season, I think with some of the other players getting older, we can probably look to Gilmour being more of a key player going forward."Napoli missed out on the chance to cut the gap on Inter at the top of the league table to just one point when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Lewis Ferguson's Bologna on Monday.Ferguson was withdrawn from the starting XI minutes before kick-off but has impressed since returning from a long-term absence through injury."[The injury was a] huge shame because he was having an incredible season and he was probably going to get a big move," Garganase says. "I know Juventus were interested in him last summer. The big injury meant he didn't come back until the latter part of 2024, and as a result he's come back and he's playing in a deeper position this year. "Last year he was more of an attacking midfielder, this year he's been playing in a double pivot in midfield in a 4-2-3-1."Maybe that's a reflection of not quite being physically 100% yet after such a serious injury, but he's been having a great season."It's been another fairy-tale season for Bologna and Ferguson has played an important role in that again."