Cameron Jerome has set his sights on having a big impact at Derby County next season after openly admitting that the transition he faced after joining the club in January was tougher than he thought.
The forward enjoyed a blistering end to the 2017/18 Sky Bet Championship campaign by scoring five goals in the final six matches.
That run of form came after he only found the back of the net once in 15 outings – 10 of which were as a substitute – after joining from Norwich City.
By his own admission, he told RamsTV that it took him a while to get fully up to speed.
“It took me a little why to get up and running and that is probably the only disappointment I have on my behalf,” the 31-year-old said.
“I wasn’t as fit and as ready to go as I would have liked, but in terms of trying to help the team and having an impact towards the end of the season, I was glad I could help out in that way.”
He added: “It’s a bigger adjustment than I thought to be honest. Over the summer, you usually have a bit of time to bed in and you have the friendly games to help you get used to how your new team plays, your team-mates’ strengths and vice versa, your team-mates get to learn your strengths.
“It was more difficult than I thought it would be, a bigger transition than I imagined, but it is the same for everyone that moves in January.”
That said, he is glad he took the risk and made the switch to Pride Park: “I knew I was coming to a successful side, though, and that was a risk that I wanted to take.
“I was glad everyone around the football club accepted me and whilst the results didn’t go for us, we will lick our wounds and come back stronger next season.”
After hitting form in the last six games, Jerome is hoping he has given Rams supporters just a flavour of what he is capable of ahead of the 2018/19 campaign.
With that in mind, his only aim now is to have a bigger impact for Derby and build on his hot-streak over a prolonged period.
“As a striker, you want to score in every single game that you go into and you go out on to the pitch believing that you are going to do that,” he said.
“In terms of having a consistent run in the team, I didn’t have that at the beginning. I would have a game in, then a game out, and any player will tell you that it is difficult to build up fitness, sharpness and confidence like that.
“As a forward, you tend to have those periods where you go through a ‘purple-patch’ or a drought and luckily for me, towards the end of the season, it was a ‘purple-patch’.
“It would have been nice to score more goals and help the team more, though.
“Whilst I am happy with the contribution I made towards the end, I am already aiming to make a bigger contribution more consistently next season.”
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