Earth Moving Italian

It seems apt that, on a weekend where Italy suffers a destructive earthquake killing hundreds, that England jumps on the media bandwaggon. This weekend in England, an unknown Italian sent shockwaves around the footballing world. But who is Kiko Macheda? And should we even care?

Macheda's goal has been compared to Steve Bruce's "last minute" winner against Sheffield Wednesday in 1993, a goal that had Brian Kidd and Alex Ferguson jumping on the touchline, convinced that was the goal to win Manchester United their first Premier League title for 26 years. Macheda's goal could be of similar importance with Liverpool breathing heavily down their neck, but the biggest comparison should probably be in the 5 minutes of added time. As Martin O'Neill suggested, you wouldn't have got that at Villa Park. That aside... Macheda took his goal very well, and has added even more excitement to the end of the season. But should we care about another promising striker coming through the Old Trafford ranks?

David Johnson was a part of the All Star Manchester United Youth Team with Beckham, Scholes and co. but despite being prolific in that side, never made it with the first team and soon found himself at Ipswich. However, whilst it didn't work out at United, he became a legend at Portman Road firing them into the Premier League.

Jonathan Macken followed not long after, again full of goals in the youth set-up before failing to make an impact at senior level. Macken moved on to feeder club Preston North End, and under David Moyes almost carried Preston into the Premier League, but instead made a £5 million move to Manchester City.

Erik Nevland was Manchester United's record goalscorer in the reserves, and was given a fair crack in the senior side, but as with the players before him found life in the senior side a struggle. Nevland took a while to overcome the rejection from United, but is now settled at Fulham, where his recent goals have helped carry them to safety, with an outside chance of Europe.

David Healy scored his first goal for Northern Ireland before his first senior Manchester United goal, which says a lot for both the strength of the United youth set-up and the weakness of the Northern Ireland set-up. Healy is now Northern Ireland's record goalscorer, but never made a success at Old Trafford, and is occasionally featuring for Sunderland.

It was Giuseppe Rossi that broke Nevland's reserve goalscoring record, before he too broke into the first team. Rossi appeared to be a genuine talent, and filled the boots of Diego Forlan not once, but twice, when Villareal then signed him for £8 million.

Frazier Campbell, currently on-loan at Tottenham Hotspur, featured in the early part of the season for Manchester United having been prolific on-loan for Hull City in the Championship last season. Campbell, also a part of the England U21 set-up, has not had the opportunity to show his talent at under-performing Spurs.

Why is it that all of these centre forwards have promised so much but never made it at Old Trafford? It's because Sir Alex Ferguson has never held back with his cheque book where signing the best centre-forwards in the world is concerned. From Eric Cantona, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham, Dwight Yorke, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Diego Forlan, Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov... Manchester United might be able to produce some talented young centre-forwards, but they will never compete with the fact that they can buy the world's best talent.

The difference between a world class forward and a regular forward compared to a world class centre-back and a regular centre back is phenomenal. There's a plethora of world class defenders, but if you were to consider the number of world class centre-forwards, or attacking players... a much smaller number stands out. And thus there is less of a need for world class centre-backs. It is much easier for a player such as Jonny Evans, or Wes Brown to come through the youth system than it is for Erik Nevland or David Healy. These players have still been very good players, particularly the latter few... but it is almost impossible for any of these players to make that impact at Old Trafford.

So... should we care about Macheda? Well... there's two big differences about Macheda that the other players didn't have. Firstly, Machede offers something different physically. He is fast, he is strong, and he is tall. Healy and Nevland in particular suffered from a lack of pace, and what Campbell has in pace he lacks in physical presence. Secondly, and potentially the biggest element, Macheda is the first player to have come through the tutelage of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as Reserve Team Manager. This may mean nothing, but if Solskjaer can coach even half of the natural talent he possessed then... perhaps... but I wouldn't bet on it.