The 27-year-old central midfielder is reportedly attracting interest from fellow English Premier League sides Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. McTominay has spent his whole career with Man Utd but has struggled to become a regular fixture in Ten Hag’s starting XI, flitting in and out of the team.

McTominay, who has only just returned for pre-season training after representing Scotland at the European Championships this summer, did not feature for the Reds during their 2-0 friendly victory over Rangers at Murrayfield on Saturday. However, when quizzed about the player’s future, Ten Hag made it clear that he does not want to sell him.

“We have very good players so there will always be an interest from other clubs,” Ten Hag said on McTominay. “He scored 10 goals last season and also performed very well for Scotland, so there will be an interest. But we want to keep him because he is a very important player for our squad. He can contribute as we saw last season. He can play in a more advanced role and he is a highly interesting player for our team.”

McTominay is expected to join up with the squad next week as Man Utd head over the United States, with their first friendly on American soil coming against Arsenal in Inglewood, California, next weekend. They warmed up for that trip by overcoming Rangers thanks to goals from ex-Ibrox loanee Amad Diallo and youngster Joe Hugill.

Diallo was one of the more impressive players on the pitch at Murrayfield and Ten Hag revealed he has high hopes for the 22-year-old Ivorian for the upcoming season. “He has made very good progression,” continued Ten Hag. “The last two seasons he was on loan and was planned to play a role. But then he had a very bad injury last season in pre-season and dropped him a little bit back. But in the last games of the season he showed assets and today for what is to come next season.”

Asked if Diallo’s best position was on the right wing, where he lined up against Rangers, Ten Hag replied: “I think that is his best position, but I think he is also capable of playing other positions like nine or ten or from the left wing. All the offensive positions he can play.”

United gave a first start to Leny Yoro, the £52million signing from Lille earlier in the week, and the 18-year-old centre-half was largely untroubled during the opening 45 minutes. “For the first time with only one training session it’s a very mature performance,” added Ten Hag. “That’s the way we saw him when we scouted him. It’s great to have him and he’s very young for a centre back. There is a lot to come but you can see already that he has great potential. He is here and we think he can play but there are so many games to come and he will be in a group of four or five.”