New Arsenal signing Cohen Bramall has described how his sudden rise from the seventh tier of English football to a Premier League club left him "absolutely gobsmacked."
The 20-year-old left-back is set to join the Gunners in a £40,000 deal from Hednesford Town after impressing Arsene Wenger during a two-day trial in December.
Wenger has likened Bramall to a young Ashley Cole, and views the defender as a long-term prospect who could one day fight for a place in the first team.
Bramall was given the opportunity to train with the Arsenal first team just before Christmas and said he could hardly believe his eyes when he entered the London Colney training ground for the first time.
"I drove in there and then I saw the Arsenal Football Club [sign], I was absolutely gobsmacked," Bramall told Sky Sports News. "It was like a dream. It was so weird.
"I was training with the first team on the first day, on the Thursday and the Friday and my eyes just lit up straight away but I had to do my job.
"I just played to the best of my ability; I used my speed a lot, overlapping from left-back and tried to get my body up there in front of Wenger really."
And he clearly did enough to impress the Arsenal boss, who offered few words of encouragement after training was over.
"He came up to me after the session, and it was literally a 'Hi, nice to meet you,'" Bramall said. "He basically said 'I like how you play.' And that was it. But just them words, you don't get a lot, do you?"
Bramall said he hopes to fight for a place in the first team next season, and his former Hednesford Town manager Liam McDonald thinks he can follow in the footsteps of Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, who also went from non-league football to becoming a star in the Premier League.
"He's a natural athlete and he's got a great opportunity to develop that now," McDonald told BBC Radio 5 live. "He'll take it in his stride. I'm very positive he'll have a similar impact to Jamie Vardy."