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Chance for Nahki to shine on the big stage

Playing against Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the League Cup is a fantastic opportunity for our Nahki Wells who is enjoying a good season with Bradford City in League Two.I’m sure with the goals he’s scoring right now that people are taking notice of him. I first saw Nahki in the gym playing in a six-a-side game when he was at Bermuda College and I knew then that he had something special by his movement.For him to go to England and demonstrate that he can play against some of the best it is great for him, fantastic for his club and brilliant for us here in Bermuda because we definitely need to have players of that calibre playing at a high level.He’s demonstrated that he can do it, and playing against Arsenal he’s got an opportunity to showcase his talent on the big stage against some of the best players in Europe at the present time.One thing about football in England, once you start scoring goals your name is out there. They would have known about him from last year with the season that he had and that’s because of the way their scouting system is set up.People are always watching, and it is not just Nahki but Clay Smith’s son, Jonte. I saw him on television one day this week and they were talking about his loan team, Metropolitan Police, who I used to play against when I was in the third team at West Ham. Now they are in the first round of the FA Cup and it is great for both of them to play on the big stage and even better for Bermuda.They should do us proud, we need to try to get as many kids as we can playing in England. Both of them are good kids and that’s the most important thing, they won’t embarrass us.When you set out to be in that arena you have to have a certain mentality because not anybody can be a professional soccer player. It takes commitment, it takes a person to have good standards and to behave themselves because there are tons of people watching you.These boys that we have in England at this time all seem to demonstrate those qualities.Certainly Bradford have a chance to cause an upset against one of England’s more established clubs. Most of the top teams use this competition to blood their youngsters.Both Chelsea and Manchester United played teams at Stamford Bridge that were full of youngsters and Arsenal did the same against Reading and were still able to pull off an amazing 7-5 win. And with Chelsea edging out United 5-4 that means those two matches alone produced 21 goals, which is great for a competition like the League Cup.It’s a great competition and it is the atmosphere that really makes cup nights in England special. The Premier League clubs tend to field their youngsters because they don’t want to risk getting their top players injured playing in a smaller competition. If you are going to get injured you are better off getting injured playing in the Champions League.This competition will be good for a club like Bradford and will be their Champions League, so to speak. Playing against a club the calibre of Arsenal makes it more special. If you are going to get a scalp, what a one to have!I can tell Arsenal it is not going to be easy and they are going to have to work hard because one thing about playing a team from the lower divisions, they have nothing to lose. If they come with the wrong mentality and are not willing to work their socks off, Arsenal could be in for a bad night.I remember once going to Hereford and we ended up getting a goal in the last couple of minutes. Hereford had a reputation in those days of taking big scalps and the year before they beat Newcastle with Ronnie Radford hitting a goal that they still show on television today.When West Ham played them we got a goal near the end to get a draw and took them to our place and beat them 5-1 or 6-1 in the replay. Sometimes those types of cup games are harder than playing in the Premier Division because those teams keep coming at you all day.