THE emergence of Jay-Jay Okocha as the new darling of the Reebok crowd was confirmed with each and every trick when he starred in Tuesday's charity gig.

Along with Kanu and Anelka, the magical Nigerian gave the occasion a touch of world class that was in much shorter supply than we had been led to believe by the event organisers, who had been flagging up the likes of Ronaldhino, Vieira, Henry, Lungberg, Thuram and Kluivert.

Jay-Jay was good value though, mesmerised his markers, jinking one way then the other, spraying the ball around with gay abandon and generally playing the exhibition stuff the fans had gone along to watch. No goals but his assists for Kanu and Shaun Bartlett were mind-blowing.

There is less scope for such displays in the Premiership (more's the pity!) but that does not mean there is no place for such naturally-talented players, as Wanderers have seen for themselves in recent weeks when, after a difficult start, the Super Eagles' star has shown he can be a key player in the battle for survival.

"Things have changed a lot," says an appreciative Ricardo Gardner. "He has come over to Britain and it's a different type of football. It took him a while to settle in and it took us a while to get to know him but it's been good for the past few games."