Welbeck sees bright future

Welbeck: Hot prospect

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Danny Welbeck believes the continued success of the England U21 side bodes well for the future.

Stuart Pearce's Young Lions made the final of the 2009 European Championships and will be hoping to go one better when the tournament heads to Denmark next year - having booked their place in the qualification play-offs with a 3-0 victory over Lithuania on Tuesday.

Results are, obviously, important at this level, but the priority for the U21 set-up is to produce potential senior stars.

Pearce's troops have achieved that target of late, with the likes of Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Adam Johnson making the step up.

Manchester United frontman Welbeck, who is currently on loan at Sunderland, is another tipped to follow that path at some stage.

Inspiration

For now the 19-year-old is prepared to bide his time and learn his trade in the youth ranks, but believes there will be many more budding talents joining Fabio Capello's senior ranks in the not too distant future.

"You can see them going up and joining the senior squad, so it gives you that little bit of belief and inspiration that you can do it yourself," said Welbeck.

"There is talent all over the U21s team, some quality players.

"The England players didn't quite do what they planned to do at the World Cup and the media was saying its time to look to the next generation and see how things can be done there - but it's up to the main man and he will choose what he wants to do."

Welbeck added: "Stuart Pearce points out that it is not always going to be that you go up and you are there for rest of the time, it is going to be a rocky ride - you could go up, come down, go up, come down.

"It is just if you can maintain your performances and hopefully everyone can get a shot at that."

Confidence

Welbeck knows international ambitions rest on domestic performances and he hopes he will be offered plenty of opportunities to impress at Sunderland this season.

"It is really important - playing matches week in and week out, you are only going to gain confidence, feel match fit and when you get on the pitch you are just ready to go," he said.

"With England, though, there is still a lot of hard work to be done before we get to the European Championships tournament, so we are looking to the next play-off game and then will go from there.

"Hopefully we will keep progressing, working hard in training and doing the stuff on the pitch."