The Class of Danny Welbeck

Danny Welbeck.

Galatasary.

6 chances.

3 goals.

Man of the match.

Danny Welbeck.

Chelsea.

0 chances.

0 goals.

Non existent in the match.

The two sides of Danny Welbeck beautifully illustrated in the space of 4 days.

From the moment Danny joined Arsenal we have seen his career perform like a heart monitor.

Shot up after his two goal salvo for England against Switzerland.

Straight back down for his debut miss at Manchester City.

A hat trick in the Champions League.

Then absolutely nothing during the game with Chelsea.

Never more beautifully did he illustrate how he is such a class player - just not a world class player.

Danny can produce brilliantly like against Galatasary on Wednesday when he became only the sixth Englishman to score a Champions League hat-trick.

Then get completely nullified four days later on Sunday when he played against a top quality side.

Just like last month when he scored against last season’s fifteenth placed Aston Villa.

And was then completely shut-out when he played the champions Manchester City.

A lot has been said of one of the most surprising deals of transfer deadline day in recent weeks.

Mainly from Arsenal fans.

Who reacted on twitter with many feelings - bewilderment included.

Their team had just spent £16m on a player who often attracted derision from fans outside of the Old Trafford.

Derision from fans inside at times too.

They needed a striker, badly.

With Arsene Wenger off refereeing a charity match in Rome, the Gunners faithful feared the worse with just hours to go before the window closed.

No mention of a striker for weeks until suddenly Danny Welbeck’s name cropped up.

He was a striker alright.

Just not a very good one.

Or at least that’s what they had thought.

His record suggested he wasn’t what their team needed.

Games for Manchester United - 142.

Goals for Manchester United - 29.

Hardly figures to set even the most optimistic of supporter’s imagination alight.

The reaction of Manchester United’s fans suggested otherwise.

Respected pundits such as Gary Neville questioned the sale.

Paul Scholes, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham too.

Even Mike Phelan, Sir Alex Ferguson’s right hand man came out against the decision of Louis Van Gaal.

A decision make entirely by Louis Van Gaal.

For Louis Van Gaal.

And for Manchester United.

Louis has come in to this massive club and now needs to stamp his authority.

He will have looked at the reactions of said former players and known every one of them came from the Sir Alex Ferguson school of thought.

And under the great Scotsman, Danny would not have been sold.

At least not yet.

But life is different now and Louis is not cut from the same cloth.

He has no sentimentality towards players who came through the ranks at the club having been there since the age of 10.

He is a lot more black and white than that.

He will have seen the stat of 29 goals in 142 games.

The problem for Danny is he will have looked at the stat of 155 goals in 200 games as well.

Radamel Falcao’s return since he came to Europe is astonishing.

He hasn’t stopped scoring since he arrived on the continent.

Lighting up the teams of Porto, Atletico Madrid and Monaco.

Costing the French side £51m last summer.

A return of 35 goals in his 41 games in European competition.

His two seasons in Europe’s best league saw a return of 24 and 28 league goals.

36 and 34 overall.

In every season he played in Europe bar the one season not finished due to his cruciate ligament injury, he has scored more goals than Danny has scored in his 6 years at Manchester United in total.

Every season.

34, 38, 36, 34.

Compared to an overall of 29.

Danny is just not in the same league.

Not even close.

Excuses can be made of how Danny has been forced to play out wide in far too many games before.

He has craved this central role that he will get at Arsenal.

But Falcao wasn’t played out wide to accommodate Diego Costa at Atletico Madrid.

The same Diego Costa who would go on to score 36 goals the following season.

That’s not what managers do with world class players.

They do that with players like Danny Welbeck.

They even sell players like Danny for sums as paltry as £16m.

A great price for Arsenal to pay.

A price that got them a great striker.

Just not one as good as Falcao...

Forget Manchester City and Chelsea - Manchester United are back.

Manchester United are back.

And back big time.

Not that they were really ever gone mind.

It’s just now the fears of them actually going away have been extinguished.

For anyone who ever had any doubt - Louis Van Gaal gave them one hundred and fifty four million reasons this summer.

Each single reason a pound.

A single currency that appears to be Manchester United’s new way of thinking.

Although very much their old one when you give it a moment’s thought.

A lot has been said about how United have become the new Manchester City.

Or the new Chelsea.

Even the new Real Madrid with the phrase ‘The Galáticos’ being replaced with ‘The Gaaláticos’.

Truth is, they were always that.

They just hadn’t flexed this muscle as often in the previous few seasons.

There were clubs who spent more than United during Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure, sure.

But United were invariably coming from a healthy position of talent.

When they had to spend big to address any discrepancies they may have had - they did.

Sir Alex Ferguson broke the British transfer record five times alone.

Five times.

The only reason it’s not six is because Robinho signed the same night as Dimitar Berbatov.

The Brazilian forward becoming the first major signing to symbolise Manchester City’s ‘buying success’ period.

He cost a mere £1.75 million more than what their city rivals had just paid.

The following summers saw an increase in City’s spending but only because they were starting from a distance back.

They needed to play catch-up first to obtain success before they could try sustain it.

A much more expensive game.

A game of heavy spending that inflation has a habit of distorting.

But just as Chelsea or Manchester City needed to do so of late - United needed to play catch up on Arsenal in the summer of 1998.

It was a huge summer.

A £27 million size summer.

Dwight Yorke, Jaap Stam, Jasper Blomqvist all bought in.

Almost triple the amount spent by their nearest rivals.

An historic treble followed.

A treble funded by the largest outlay any English club had green lighted before.

Manchester City have been the most recent club accused of buying success.

But it’s been a long time since a team hasn’t.

The last of the non ‘big’ teams to win the league was Blackburn Rovers.

Bankrolled by the treasure chest of Jack Walker, they paid huge sums for various players at the time.

The British transfer record was broke to bring Alan Shearer to Ewood Park before they won the title.

Job done.

There’s even teams in the Premier League who have spent massive amounts to ‘buy success’ yet just haven’t achieved the desired results that go with this expression of intended derision.

Liverpool have spent more than Manchester United in the Premier League era.

Tottenham Hotspur have spent more than Arsenal.

The only difference between what they did and Manchester City or Chelsea did is the amount spent in the first few seasons of this ‘new’ money.

Playing catch-up meant they had to spend big to jump up to a level playing field with the established clubs.

But just as this season sees Manchester City spending only £50 million compared to their previous larger amounts - a plateau invariably occurs.

Resulting in spending now that equates little difference to the regular spends of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal or Tottenham of certain periods in the last 22 years.

£154 million was a huge outlay.

And one suspects there will be more money spent come January and next summer.

But it’s no different to breaking the British transfer record to bring Juan Sebastien Veron to the club for £28.1 million in 2001.

Nor is it any different to breaking the world transfer record for a defender when they brought in Rio Ferdinand for £29.1 million in 2002.

Roy Keane, Andy Cole, Ruud Van Nistelrooy the same.

All 5 times Sir Alex Ferguson broke the British transfer record was an example of a big club buying success.

It’s been that way for a long, long time.

Manchester United haven’t become the new Chelsea.

Haven’t become the new Manchester City either.

And they certainly haven’t sold their soul.

They’re just back to their traditional Manchester United selves.

The original big spenders of the Premier League.

Intent on buying success again...