It was shortly before Christmas when Tony Whelan, who has spent almost 30 years guiding the futures of Manchester United’s aspiring youngsters, bumped into Scott McTominay’s Glaswegian father, Frank, outside Old Trafford as they queued up to get into the ground.

“We had a conversation and I’m there thinking, ‘Wow, all these years later I’m in a queue with his dad, Scott’s in the first team and we’re going to see him play’,” Whelan recalled this week. “It was a nice moment. You don’t really need to exchange words. It appears this lad has come out of nowhere, doesn’t it? But for him it’s been a slog, a long journey.”

McTominay’s emergence at United this term is the latest if one of the more unexpected success stories of the Old Trafford talent factory. Plenty of others who were perceived as better bets have come and gone in the time McTominay has slowly but surely risen to the top of the pile and left behind a scattering of hurdles that might have proven insurmountable for less driven, resilient characters.

He had already made 12 first team appearances, dating back to the end of last season, by the time Jose Mourinho dropped his club record £89 million signing, Paul Pogba, and instead started the 21-year-old at home to Huddersfield Town last month.