Excitement has been the primary emotion at the Derby County Training Centre in recent weeks and Richard Keogh is no different as he looks ahead to his seventh campaign as a Ram.
The appointment of Frank Lampard as the club’s new manager has sent a wave of anticipation through the East Midlands.
It’s over two weeks until Keogh and his teammates are due back for pre-season training, but the centre-back is already eager to get started and he explained some of the work that the players go through to keep themselves in condition over the summer.
He told RamsTV: “If we give it another week, I’ll probably get itchy feet and want to come back in!
“It will be exciting to walk back in and see the boys, especially with a new manager coming in and new staff in place.
“I’ll probably do a bit more work, that’s why I’ve been in recently, just to tick over and make sure that I can hit the ground running when we come back.
“We have an off-season programme that we stick to, but it’s key just to wind down a little bit and come back refreshed.”
The 31-year-old is one of the club’s longest serving players, having arrived from Coventry City in the summer of 2012.
Even so, Keogh believes that he can still learn a lot from the new boss from a coaching perspective, but also from what Lampard achieved during his playing career.
He explained: “It’s a chance to learn from an elite player, somebody that has been in an elite environment throughout his entire career and worked with some elite coaches.
“For me, it’s going to be really exciting to tap into that and to learn, because from listening to his interviews, I have been really impressed.
“I can relate to a lot of the things that he has said. During his career, he squeezed every ounce out of himself and I can relate to that.
“It’s a really good appointment and I’m looking forward to meeting up and getting started.”
