One of the great Sir Matt Busby's beliefs was that if a player is good enough he is old enough, and the impact of Federico Macheda in recent weeks confirms that, that philosophy continues to thrive at Old Trafford.

Look back at the club's history and you see a trail of young players that have turned out for United in some of the biggest games, some of those young players turning into icons in the process.

Of course you had the Busby Babes, then the great George Best and Bobby Charlton, in the Eighties there was Norman Whiteside and the Nineties produced Ryan Giggs, Lee Sharpe and on into Fergie's Fledglings in the shape of David Beckham, the Neville brothers, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes.

Times have changed and with the money now involved in the Premier League, clubs can wait longer to blood young talent while ready made players are brought in from abroad. Youth systems can also be cyclic.

Fergie Fledglings produced a whole rack of exciting young professionals but not all years are as any where near as fruitful, no matter the size of the club involved.  As a coach you have to consistently strive to find another generation like that.

With two goals, both winners, in two substitute appearances Macheda certainly fulfils Sir Matt's philosophy. He came to United as a result of our European scouting system. Our scouts regularly attend European qualifier games at youth level.

Before a competitive fixture you can have three or four practice games played in one country in a week so it is a great opportunity to see a lot of players on a short space of time. Once Macheda was recommended to us another two or three people who work for us went and took a look too. We are happy to go with the majority of their recommendations as we put a lot of trust into their opinions. We are always looking for excellent young players all over Europe but they must come from a high standard at club level.

Nevertheless, Macheda still represented a risk, particularly as he was coming to us from another country. Would he settle? Pick up a new language quickly? Be able to cope with the climate in Manchester? How will he grow physically in that crucial period between the ages of 18 and 20?

His progress has accelerated in the last six month beyond expectations and his response to be told that he might be on the bench against Aston Villa was to score a hat-trick in a reserve game. That sealed his place in the first team squad. His cause was helped by the fact we were a little short on strikers too.

The rest is history.

Before being called into the United squad, Machedo was expected to be part of the trip to the Torneo Calcio Memorial Claudio Sassi-Sassuolo tournament  in Italy over Easter. These tournaments give United's young players an opportunity to pit themselves up against different styles of play. Just as important is that they learn that foreign referees interpret the rules of the game differently to English refs. United won the tournament by beating Ajax 1-0 in the final.

Of, course winning tournaments gives a great amount of satisfaction to all the coaches involved. But coaching is more than that, it's also about seeing a player develop into the player he should be.  And that's the same for any coach at any level whether they coach a Macheda or just a lad who enjoys his football on the local park.