10 strikers signed and £250m spent but Manchester United still pine for £16m star that got away

At least one Mancunian enjoyed the FA Cup quarter-finals on Sunday afternoon. The indefatigable Danny Welbeck was the Brighton hero on Tyneside as the Longsight-born striker fired the Seagulls to within one game of Wembley with a brilliantly taken goal in extra-time.

It was Welbeck's eighth goal of the season in all competitions, and it goes without saying that is more than either of the strikers currently toiling away at Manchester United. At Old Trafford, Joshua Zirkzee's afternoon ended in tears and Rasmus Hojlund's with the sense that his place could be taken away by a 17-year-old.

Almost 11 years after his Old Trafford exit as a 23-year-old, an afternoon of FA Cup drama ended with Wayne Rooney suggesting Welbeck was the answer for United. If he were at the club now, he would be the best striker in the squad.

It takes some doing for United to have got themselves in that position. It was a sad day when Welbeck left his boyhood club in September 2014, joining Arsenal for £16million, but there was no huge sense of loss. Radamel Falcao had arrived on loan that summer, Wayne Rooney was 29, Robin van Persie was 31, and Javier Hernandez was 27.

Welbeck didn't fit Louis van Gaal's style, and after 29 goals in 142 games, the time felt right to move on. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake. Welbeck has flourished as his game has developed, and in a decade of flux and regression at United, he would clearly have had a role to play in this squad. But if we have learnt anything from the last decade at Old Trafford, star power counts for far more than players gradually building a career for themselves.

For a club that has spent around £1bn since selling Welbeck to find itself in a position where he would be their best striker at