Dreams can come true

Once again the esl has produced a player that has progressed to the football league with the recent signing of Richard Kone by Wycombe Wanderers from Athletic Newham & he has already scored a couple of goals . I thought I would look at other non league players that have risen from non league to full time football league football just to remind us all of what is possible with a lot of hard work & dedication as well as talent & some good fortune dreams really can be realised. Michail Antonio will never escape his past. Whatever achievements he racks up – the latest being West Ham’s all-time top Premier League goalscorer – it will rarely be more than a moment before we’re reminded that “he started off at non-league Tooting & Mitcham United, you know.”
Funny to think that Andre Gray was released by Shrewsbury – and this after his hometown club Wolves had already rejected him from their academy. As he turned 19, Gray joined sixth-tier part-timers Hinckley United.

His 37 goals in 85 games alerted Luton, then seeking promotion back to the Football League; 57 in 111 for the Hatters earned him a move to Brentford, then Burnley, where 23 in 41 promptly fired player and club into the Premier League. With the Clarets and subsequently Watford.
He may officially not be Sir Les but he is an MBE – not something anyone would have predicted when he played for Southall, even if the Ealing club also produced Alan Devonshire, Gordon Hill and Eric Young. Despite an FA Vase final he moved on to Hayes, where 19 goals in 33 games persuaded local top-flighters QPR to spend £50,000.

After loan spells at Brentford and, less predictably, Besiktas, Ferdinand started scoring top-division goals, for a decade and a half. Newcastle, Spurs, West Ham, Leicester and Bolton all benefited as the qualified helicopter pilot racked up 149 goals in 349 top-flight games, not to mention 17 England caps and the 1996 PFA Player of the Year gong.
Cumbria is a place of frequent beauty but infrequently successful footballers. With a humble nod to the memory of Liverpool winger Peter Thompson – and with all due respect to Steve Harkness and Dean Henderson – the county’s greatest bequest to the Premier League has been Glenn Murray.

Maryport-born Murray did the county rounds, playing for Workington Reds and Barrow before heading to then-Conference Carlisle, whom he helped to two successive promotions, but it was at Rochdale that he found his scoring boots. Said soles then took him to Brighton, Palace, Bournemouth and Brighton again, with his south-coast tally eventually reaching 37 goals in 148 Premier League games.
Fabio Capello was not a manager given to japes, so we can safely assume he did not thrice call up James Richard Bullard for his personality and demeanour. The fact that Bullard played with a smile on his face at the dawn of the social media age – along with his post-retirement rentability – perhaps now hides the fact that he was actually quite good at football, as Don Fabio agreed.

West Ham thought so too, paying Gravesend & Northfleet £30,000 for the 20-year-old in 1999. Although he didn’t make the grade at his boyhood idols, he fought back to the top via Peterborough and Wigan, helping the Latics vault two divisions to the Premier – where he also Fulham & hull prior to building a successful tv career with sky sports.
It takes a special story to top these ,& Ian wright has a special story. After a troubled childhood with an abusive stepfather, he was rejected in trials at Southend and Brighton and, at 19, jailed for a fortnight for driving offences. Knuckling down, he played semi-pro for Greenwich Borough, earning £30 a week and a trial at Crystal Palace, who signed him just before his 22nd birthday.After 118 goals in 277 games helped Palace into the top flight, Wright was bought by Arsenal and in a seven-year spell became the club’s all-time top goalscorer with 185 in 288 games, along with a Premier League title, two FA Cups, a League Cup and a European Cup Winners Cup, plus the majority of his 33 England caps. In total he scored 165 goals in 315 top-flight games. Not bad for the boy that nobody wanted – and a lesson in hope for all non-league players.
Richard Kone certainly has the ability to match what Dwight Gayle achieved however it's just a shame that he has had to wait so long however I'm sure he will grab his opportunity & give it everything he has heres hoping so.