As children we had free reign, and were actively encouraged, to embrace the grandest ideas of what we would like to be 'when we grow up'. Depending on what I was watching on Saturday afternoon-TV, my dream job changed every 45 minutes or so. When The A-Team was on I, obviously, wanted to grow up to be a soldier of fortune. If it was Magnum PI, I wanted to grow up to be a mustachioed Vietnam veteran turned private eye - complete with a red Ferrari and a sweet gaff in Hawaii.

It took many years for it to finally dawn on me that, what with the Vietnam war having finished - and me being nine - it was an unrealistic ambition.

Doogie Howser MD inspired me to be a doctor and CHIPs sparked the desire to patrol the highways of southern California on a motorbike next to Erik Estrada.

But all those were secondary in comparison to the big dream.The over-riding fantasy, as with many young boys in Derry, was to make a career out of kicking football in the English Premier League.To run out at Anfield, Old Trafford, Highbury or - for me, as a Sheffield Wednesday fan - Hillsborough, would have been the ultimate. Match of the Day was a fixture on Saturday nights and on Sunday afternoons we tried to recreate the goals scored by Barnes, Le Tissier, Cantona et al.

This week, a local boy was given the opportunity to fulfil that dream. Derry City's Pat McCourt is headed somewhere, with Celtic now taking over from West Brom as favourites for his signature.

Frequenters of Brandywell and this paper's sports pages will be all too familiar with the mercurial skills of McCourt. His was the name everyone waited with baited breath to hear over the tannoy, and a sense of expectation rippled through the crowds when he had the ball at his feet.

It's a cliche to say 'expect the unexpected' but that's what we all did when the ball was played to McCourt - a sharp turn, a flick, a trick, or a mazy dribble was usually on the cards. McCourt has the ability to breeze past defenders like they're not even there, and now he has the opportunity to do that at the highest level.

Derry City manager Stephen Kenny said of McCourt (when it was all about West Brom): "I suppose there was always an inevitability about him and, now that a Premiership club has come in for him, I have to be realistic and accept that the move to West Brom presents him with a great opportunity and I think everyone in Derry will hope he does well there.

"It could be a good move for him. His rhythm, his technique and the way he plays is much more South American in style than European. In Ireland and in England people play at the one tempo, but I think Paddy is different.

"Technically he is as good as anybody and he has a very sharp brain. He has a great footballing intellect. It's a fabulous opportunity for a player like Paddy to get a chance." Too right.