Blog: Well done Welbeck!

Eyebrows were raised in 2009 when Sir Alex Ferguson predicted Danny Welbeck would gatecrash Fabio Capello's World Cup squad the following year.
As it turned out, the United manager was only one tournament out with his bold attempt at soothsaying despite the comment looking outlandish at the time. Fast forward to 2012 and nobody batted an eyelid when the 21-year-old was one of only four strikers selected by Roy Hodgson.
Many even reckon Welbeck is in pole position to deputise for team-mate Wayne Rooney in the opening two games of the tournament. The Daily Mail suggests he is likely to be fourth-choice for Hodgson but clearly he did more over the course of the season than both Andy Carroll and Jermain Defoe to merit a place in the line-up.
A lot of the focus in the media was rightly on Rio Ferdinand's exclusion but his United colleague's call was not a surprise. If you consider that he was rated on a similar level to Daniel Sturridge at the start of the campaign, it's an achievement just to be ahead of the Chelsea hitman, who is only on the stand-by list.
Both Welbeck and Sturridge played in the Under-21 European Championship in Denmark last year and, as I mentioned when interviewing him for Inside United, it seemed a portent to the future when the caption came up reflecting the number of goals he'd scored in the finals after hitting the net for a second time. I think it's something all people of a certain age remember from major tournaments of yesteryear, those older than me will tell you Jairzinho's strikes at the 1970 were always accompanied by 'Jair' and an ever-increasing tally.