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You got your start at Chelsea's academy...
I was scouted for Chelsea at the age of nine. I joined the academy after a six-week trial and I progressed through the youth team up until I got all the way up to the reserve side.
Who are some of the players you played with during your time at the Chelsea academy that people may recognise?
So, when I went into the youth team at 16, that was around the time when Roman Abramovich bought the club. With Abramovich coming in, not only was the club signing world-class players for the first team, but also started signing players at the youth team level. So, the likes of Scott Sinclair who went on to have a good career, Ryan Betrand who went on to win the [2012] Champions League with Chelsea as well as Jack Cork who is the Burnley captain. I also had Brendan Rodgers as my youth team coach who was phenomenal and as a young boy learning my trade, he was absolutely incredible to learn from and it was a great foundation to start my career.
What was it like leaving Chelsea at such a young age to go join another British giant in Rangers?
At the age of 18 unfortunately my contract wasn't renewed with Chelsea, which as a young boy dreaming of playing in the Premier League, that's my first real rejection almost and tough time as a footballer. Thankfully Chelsea was amazing with me. They had organised for me to train with Rangers, we're talking one massive club to another club and after my week's training there they offered me a contract. So yes, I knew I was leaving Chelsea and I was disappointed with that, but I had something really exciting to focus my mind and my attention to. The great thing about going to join Rangers, I was going from being a youth team player at Chelsea to going to Rangers and being part of the first-team environment. The move was really massive for me.
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What was it like playing alongside the likes of Stephen Davis when you first arrived at Ibrox?
Yeah we had players like Barry Ferguson who is a Rangers legend. We had players like Charlie Adam, who went on to play for Liverpool, Stephen Davis came in, Pedro Mendes came in and these are top top players. You had Alan Hutton who came down from the Premier League as well and did great things with Aston Villa so plenty of quality players. Just to be around that quality everyday was really massive and not only the quality, just to understand what the kind of pressure was like. Because I would see the pressure later on in my career, especially with Bafana Bafana, and the expectations and how to deal with that. I think being in and around Rangers, who were expected to win every game and every trophy that they were in, and to see how the players dealt with that pressure was a big learning curve for me at the start of my career.
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