Two seasons ago Federico Macheda was the new darling of the Stretford End and seemed on the verge of becoming the next great Manchester United striker.

Making his debut as a substitute for Nani in a crucial Premier League match against Aston Villa with Manchester United trailing 2-1, he scored an injury-time winner and the Red Devils went on to win the title.

Macheda was just 17 at the time but already seemed to have the big-game mentality the sport’s top-level players possess.

But two years on and Macheda, although still only a teenager, seems to be stuck in limbo.

When he arrived at Manchester United he was behind Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez in the pecking order.

Tevez left but Michael Owen was brought in and Macheda was still at best fourth-choice striker, although with Danny Welbeck and Mame Biram Diouf also on the club’s books, there was no certainty of that.

The Rome-born forward seemed to be making steady progress and was a more regular member of the first-team squad in his second season but then, prior to last year’s World Cup, Alex Ferguson bought Mexican Javier Hernandez.

Welbeck and Diouf were sent out on loan for the whole season but with Hernandez making a positive early impact, Macheda was now fifth choice out of the five strikers left at the club.

A January loan move to Sampdoria seemed just the tonic, both for Manchester United and Macheda.

The teenager was never going to get many chances in the United first team while Sampdoria, who had qualified for the Champions League the previous season and were still in contention for a European finish, were in the market for a new forward.

Macheda’s goalscoring feats at United had received a lot of coverage in Italy, where he was considered one of the country’s leading young talents.

And when Samp sold their two best forwards Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini, there was not just one void to fill, but two.

Several Italian clubs ex-pressed their interest and Manchester United manager Ferguson sanctioned a move to Sampdoria, believing his charge would have a realistic chance of playing regularly.

He made his debut in a 2-1 victory over Roma and then got his first start, and first goal, in the Italian Cup win over Udinese 10 days later.

But the move quickly turned sour for Macheda.

That was the first of four games in a row in which he started but in a 4-0 defeat at Napoli he was replaced early in the second half and thereafter lost his place in the starting line-up.

Macheda had a couple of unconvincing performances where he showed lots of desire and industry but not enough technique and composure.

Utter failure

He would start only one more game, in the home defeat to Genoa in the city derby, where again he was replaced before the hour mark.

In a team in free-fall towards relegation and struggling to score goals – they have managed only 13 in 21 games since the turn of the year – Macheda couldn’t get in the side.

Ahead of the last game of the season he had made only three starts in the league and his only goal for the club remains that one in the cup against Udinese.

Now he faces an uncertain future.

He appears to have no hope of replacing Rooney and Hernandez as United’s first-choice striker and cannot expect to be brought on ahead of Berbatov either.

Despite their relegation to Serie B, Sampdoria are not believed to be interested in a permanent deal and interest from Lazio, where he started his junior career, has also cooled.

The loan move that was supposed to launch Macheda’s assault on a place in United’s first team seems, if anything, to have pushed him further down the pecking order.

A move to an Italian team is still a possibility, but the interest now is more likely to come from Serie A strugglers rather than the league’s pace-setters.