Welbeck eyeing more goals

Steve Davis' rise to bookies' favourite for the managerial vacancy at Wolves comes as no real surprise to Crewe director of football Dario Gradi.

Alex boss Davis took the reins at Gresty Road in November 2011, replacing Gradi after he opted to move upstairs having first been appointed as manager back in 1983.

In his 18 months at the helm, Davis has led to Crewe to promotion via the League Two play-off final, returned to Wembley to lift the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and kept the club in League One with a commendable 13th-placed finish.

His stock has risen so much that Birmingham-born Davis - a boyhood Wolves fan - has now become odds-on favourite to take over at Molineux.

Gradi has told Crewe's official website: "Steve has done a great job and he and Neil (Baker, assistant) work well together. They are a good combination and have worked hard to bring success to the club.

"I am not surprised that his name crops up when jobs are mentioned because his record is very good. He has won a promotion, won a cup and finished halfway in the league above.

"If you would have asked them to have done that for us when he first took over, he would probably and understandably turned around and said that it couldn't possibly be done, but he has gone and done it.

"Steve is unflappable and knows how the club works. He knows he has to make the money we lose by promoting young players and selling them on. You can only do that by developing young players and putting them in."

Davis has overtaken ex-Millwall boss Kenny Jackett and former England manager Steve McClaren as frontrunner for the Wanderers hot seat.

Welbeck only found the net on two occasions last term compared to 12 the year before.

Remarkably, Welbeck has scored three times for England, where he does tend to benefit from being played in his preferred role down the middle rather than out on the flanks, which has tended to happen at United.

Nevertheless, with a new manager to impress now, Welbeck accepts he needs to do better.

"This season has been the most number of matches I have played and my performances have been a lot more consistent but the goals return has not been good at all," Welbeck told MUTV.

"I do feel if I can get a better goals return I will be flying."

The issue of being played out of position has not helped though.

Ferguson did feel confident enough in Welbeck's abilities to select him ahead of Wayne Rooney to do the tracking-back job on Xabi Alonso during the crucial Champions League second-leg clash with Real Madrid.

The tactic was working like a dream until Nani was dismissed, costing Ferguson his last shot at a third Champions League title.

More often though, Welbeck was shunted out on the wing.

Now he can only hope Moyes looks at the situation in a slightly different way.

"I want to be up front and scoring goals," he said.

"If I am playing on the wings I still want to score more goals but preferably I will be up front and scoring goals there."

Welbeck's best position is a medium-term decision for Moyes to make.

The new United manager is set to go on a short holiday next week, by which time it is assumed he will have confirmed his backroom team, with no major changes envisaged.

Moyes is already aware Rio Ferdinand will sign his new contract when he returns from his current trip to Marbella with brother Anton and former Chelsea midfielder Jody Morris for a friend's stag celebrations.

The future of Rooney is nothing like as clear cut, especially as it has now been established the striker did not make a transfer request as Sir Alex Ferguson has stated.

A conversation between Rooney and Ferguson was supposedly more concerned with how the United boss intended to use the ?27million player given his frequent appearances in midfield this season and aimed at getting some reassurance about his long-term future.

What is not known is why Ferguson opted to put such a spin on the conversation when he put it into the public domain immediately after the final home game of the season against Swansea.

Ferguson has since claimed the matter is not his concern, but Moyes is still to make his first public utterances as United boss and even Rooney is unaware whether he is viewed as an integral part of the club where he has now won five league titles.

Interestingly, though his value as a player is open to question, he is still one of United's highest-profile players with apparently, more requests from sponsors for appearances on tour being made about the 27-year-old than any other member of the Red Devils squad, including Robin van Persie.