Macheda's debut and calling on Hulk Hogan to get you out of trouble

Football Food For Thought / Dan Fitch / 07 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

Dan "The Betting Man" Fitch wonders how he didn't come across the name of Federico Macheda before whilst playing Championship Manager and looks at other players who had eye-catching debuts such as Alan Shearer and Jimmy Greaves.

They say that first impressions are crucial. If you ever find yourself in a position where you've got an interview for a job that you don't really want, just turn up wearing a hat and you'll find that this maxim holds true. If it's really vital that you don't get the job, then I personally recommend a Stetson.

When it comes to making a good first impression, few have done better than the Manchester United debutant Federico Macheda. The 17 year old grabbed a last gasp winner against Aston Villa, to give United a crucial victory.

What with the amount of media coverage that surrounds football these days and the fact that I spend far too much time pouring over the statistics of youth team players when playing Football Manager, it is rare that a youngster makes his debut, who I haven't already heard of.

But I must confess to having never come across the name of Federico Macheda, before his storming debut on Sunday. I don't suppose I was alone in my ignorance and would wager that his Wikipedia page has been attracting very steady traffic since his debut goal.

For those not in the know, here are the facts. Macheda is Italian and was born in Rome in 1991. He started his career with Lazio, but United took advantage of an Italian ruling stating that under-18s cannot sign professional terms and swooped to sign Macheda when he was 16 years old.

Macheda was the top scorer in the United youth side last term, with 12 goals. He has scored 8 goals in 8 games for the reserve side this season, including a hat-trick against Newcastle reserves last week (though one can only wonder at just how poor a Newcastle reserve side must be right now).

Nicknamed 'Kiko', Macheda scored a debut goal that may well prove to have a significant bearing on the title race. Manchester United are [1.38] to retain their crown after his last-gasp winner against Villa on Sunday, with Liverpool now at [4.3].

Making a slightly less impressive debut at the weekend was Alan Shearer, as manager of Newcastle United. Only last week I wrote of how a succession of increasingly bizarre managerial appointments had brought the Geordies to their knees.

A couple of days later and rather than appointing an experienced manager to get them out of trouble, they instead pick their local hero and hope for the best, forgetting entirely that this didn't work out brilliantly when they recently re-appointed Keegan. It's a bit like if America, when in their worst financial state since the great depression, had not voted for Obama, but had instead put their faith in Hulk Hogan to sort things out.

Following the loss to Chelsea, Newcastle are now [2.02] to be relegated. The defeat reversed the trend of Shearer making a good impression on his debut. He scored a hat-trick in his first start with Southampton, scored when winning his first England cap and netted twice on his debut for Blackburn. Though Shearer didn't score on his debut for Newcastle, he did whack home a free kick in his first appearance at St James' Park and has been a Geordie folk hero ever since.

The undoubted master of the barnstorming debut though, must be Jimmy Greaves. He scored on his debut for every side he played for. At 17 Greaves scored on his first appearance for Chelsea and when he was given his first England cap in 1959, he scored against Peru.

Greaves then scored on his debut at AC Milan and though it is true that he had trouble settling in Italy, the problems weren't on the pitch, as 9 goals in 12 games for the club testifies.

The spell abroad came to an end, with a move to Spurs. Greaves scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Blackpool. In total Greaves scored 266 goals in a Tottenham career that ended when Greaves was aged 30. Rather than retiring, he did the next best thing and signed for West Ham, where he of course scored twice on his debut.

Greaves remains the deadliest goalscorer that we've seen in this country, with a total of 357 goals in the top flight of English league football (Shearer is fifth on the all time list with 283).

Whether Federico Macheda can reach such heights is questionable. What is undoubtedly true though, is that his debut was impressive enough to have earned him more chances in the first team. With United facing Porto tonight, we'll all have one eye on the subs bench.