According to Uefa there are scouts representing 75 leading clubs at the European Under-21 Championship, more than a dozen of them from England. Danny Welbeck, expected to lead the line for Stuart Pearce's team in their decisive group match against the Czech Republic tonight, is interested in impressing only Manchester United. Attached to United since the age of eight, he has agreed in the past two years to loan periods at Preston and Sunderland, and is grateful for the experience, but intends once this tournament is over to concentrate all his energies on tieing down a place at Old Trafford.
Admiration for him there is already significant. In the summer of 2009 Sir Alex Ferguson surprisingly announced that Welbeck should be in England's squad for the World Cup, offering a reference that read: "Danny's a certainty to make it at the highest level. Wide left, or through the middle, he has the intelligence, guts, athleticism and talent to do the job." Fabio Capello declined to act on the great man's recommendation, but in March this year he gave Welbeck a first senior cap in the friendly at home to his parents' country Ghana, which brought an adverse reaction from thousands of Ghanaian supporters hoping he would choose to represent them instead. "I even had a few cousins in the stands and they said they were booing!" Welbeck said. "But it was fine, we all had a little laugh at the end of the game. I've still got aunties and uncles back in Ghana and they were all really happy for me having made my debut for England so it was all sweet."
Having not played in a competitive game, he is technically still eligible for Ghana, but to judge from a long conversation yesterday, he has eyes for only one country and one club. "I've been playing for England since I was 14," he pointed out. "The step from Under-21s to seniors, I was obviously over the moon with that."
He has scored England's only goal at this tournament, a neatly taken equaliser in the last few minutes against Spain, without which they would be bottom of the group going into this evening's game. Daniel Sturridge may have eclipsed him in terms of performance so far but he puts that down partly to an unusualrole against Spain, dropping deeper into midfield, and also to the fact that England have seen less of the ball than their opponents in both matches. "Good work-rate but the team's not really had great possession of the ball at times so I've not really got on to the ball as much as I'd like," is how Welbeck sums up his contribution. "I'm looking forward to getting the ball a bit more, moving across the pitch, getting a few more passes in and then hopefully drop off into the angles and get in behind the defence. We need to create a few more chances and hopefully stick them away as well. We feel we've done well but we need to get on the ball a bit more, actually take control of the game and make them chase the ball more."
It is a mature assessment from one of the older players in the squad, who would have been at the Under-21 finals two years ago had he not been injured. Injury also hindered his period at Sunderland last season, although not sufficiently to detract from enjoyment of the experience. ''My main aim was to get minutes under my belt in the Premier League and I did that. I was delighted with it. You learn massive amounts, it's experience you can't gain from being at United on the bench like I was the season before, so once I went there and got the taste of playing games week-in and week-out I was really happy with that. I'm young and looking to improve, and hungry for success as well."
Sunderland's Steve Bruce is by no means the only Premier League manager who would love to him on the books next season but this time, it seems, United intend giving Welbeck his chance: "The manager [Ferguson] said I'll get decent opportunities and hopefully I'll take them and progress from there." If he does so – which will not be easy, given United's striking options at present – Pearce will undoubtedly be pushing his claims to Capello, who was down to two fit strikers for his most recent game. It is in the Under-21 manager's interests to promote progression through the various under-age teams and in Chelsea's Sturridge and Welbeck he has two candidates. The difficulty for them is finding regular football with their parent clubs, which will be just as tricky for Sturridge unless at least one Chelsea striker moves on in the next few weeks. Using this tournament as a showcase – which means winning today to stay in it – can only help.
