The suggestion that Brighton’s Danny Welbeck is the coolest guy at Britain’s coolest club makes him laugh.
At 32, the former England striker dubbed “Dat Guy” by one-time Manchester United team-mate Ravel Morrison is now more commonly known around the Brighton training ground as “Daddy”, reflecting his experience relative to a young Seagulls squad. “Daddy Welbz,” he says. “I think I’m just same old, really, just with kids!”
But he agrees that Brighton, who face United on Sunday in the second FA Cup semi-final, have become cool, especially since Roberto De Zerbi took over as head coach, and not just among pundits. “Yeah, definitely. We get a lot of plaudits from all over the country. After games we have players coming up to us saying ‘You guys are bopping it,’ all that sort of stuff. We do get a lot of good feedback.”
Brighton are enjoying the best season in their history, pushing for Europe and a second FA Cup final appearance, all while playing a very watchable style of football. Now in his third season at the Amex, Welbeck is enjoying the challenge of breaking new ground after being at well-established clubs in United and Arsenal.
“It’s been an unbelievable journey,” he adds. “We’ve improved year upon year. That’s the most important thing because of where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come. It’s a really good story but the lads don’t rest on their laurels here.
“Last season we obviously made history with our league finish but there were also moments where we knew that we could have done a lot better. We want to keep on pushing, the manager wants us to keep us pushing and get to the next level.”
Welbeck has played under Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger but has nothing but praise for De Zerbi, “a special manager” who can be even more fiery on the training ground than on the sidelines.
“It’s great to see the passion and you see how much football means to him and how he wants his team to play,” says Welbeck. “To give off that energy, it rubs off onto the players. The players then want to be on board, take everything he’s saying all in and excel. Everyone is hungry in that dressing-room and we’re looking forward to the last couple of months of the season.”
Welbeck is one of the few in the squad with experience of FA Cup semi-finals, losing on penalties to Everton with United in 2008-9, his debut season, winning with Arsenal against Manchester City in 2017, and then beating Chelsea in the final.
Scoring at Wembley is also on his CV, hitting the net !0 times for England. He even scored a winning FA Cup goal against United, for Arsenal in the 2015 quarter-final on his first return to Old Trafford.
“I’ve played games against United multiple times now, and to be honest it’s not as weird as it once was,” he says. “To score and knock them out in the quarter-final was one of those things with my friends all being United fans, but that day they were all rooting for me anyway. I was doing my job and that’s how it is. But I am really looking forward to the game at the weekend.
“To win trophies is big and you can always look back with fond memories. It also gives you that hunger to do it again. If you have the opportunity and you can go for it, I think you should go for it full pelt.”
Welbeck is not concerned that the occasion might get the better of his younger team-mates. “We have players who have won trophies and the latest one is [Alexis Mac Allister] who has won the World Cup.
“The manager, he won’t let anybody be affected. You can see with the way we’ve gone to different stadiums this season and performed well. Everybody knows what our jobs are, everybody is really strong mentally and we’ll all be there for each other. If somebody needs a little arm round them they’ll get that too. We’ll fight for each other on the pitch until the end.
“Going to Wembley is a nice occasion, great stadium, unbelievable history so it’s one you should just relish. It’s great for the club to be involved in these occasions, and hopefully this is just the start.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/SN1Ox7A
Post a Comment