"He's having a fantastic season" – Wayne Rooney claims striker who left Manchester United in 2014 would play for them right now

Manchester United great Wayne Rooney has suggested Brighton & Hove Albion striker Danny Welbeck is still good enough to feature for the Red Devils.

Welbeck, 34, rose through the Old Trafford outfit's youth ranks before helping his former team win two Premier League titles and four other trophies. The right-footed striker scored 29 goals and provided 16 assists in 142 overall appearances for the Red Devils before joining Arsenal in 2014.

The former Manchester United man is currently relishing a fine campaign at Brighton. He has netted eight goals and registered four assists in 1661 minutes of first-team action for his club, spread across 25 total games.

After the Red Devils' FA Cup fifth round loss against Fulham earlier this Sunday, Rooney stated that Welbeck would still play for his former club. He told BBC One (h/t Metro):

"Danny's great to play alongside. If I'm completely honest, I'd probably like to still see him here, playing for Manchester United. He's scored goals throughout his career. He had injuries in the early part of his career but he seems to have got over them and he's having a fantastic season."

Welbeck, whose Brighton deal will expire next June, has netted seven Premier League goals in 20 outings this season. Rasmus Hojlund has two in 22 games and Joshua Zirkzee has three in 27 matches in the league so far.

Ex-Manchester United boss asserts he is upset with former club's decision to offload midfielder

During a chat with The Athletic, Besiktas manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was queried whether he still follows Manchester United. He replied (h/t Metro):

"When I can. It's still good to see Bruno Fernandes and Harry [Maguire] doing well. And [Scott McTominay] is doing well at Napoli. I'm upset that we let him go because he was important last season when he kept popping up with goals. His heart and his knowledge of the culture were important."

Solskjaer, who both played and managed the Red Devils, concluded:

"But my focus is here now; it must be. [Besiktas] is a huge club with fans all around Turkey and all around the world. We played an away cup game at the Olympic Stadium and we brought 12,000, but it felt like 40,000 because they were so loud. Besiktas is more than a football club and started out as a gymnastics club. The community is important here and there are parallels with United."

Since joining Napoli in a potential £25 million transfer last August, Scott McTominay has been in brilliant form at the heart of his club's midfield.

So far, McTominay has scored seven goals in 26 total games for Napoli.