Defender Eiran Cashin says he's still 'buzzing' after signing a new deal with Derby County last week.
Cashin committed his future to the Rams by putting pen-to-paper on a deal which will run until the summer of 2027.
Speaking to RamsTV on Thursday morning, the Academy spoke about his new contract, his relationship with the Rams supporters and the team's push to remain at the top end of League One.
On signing a new deal with Derby County...
I'm buzzing, really. I'm buzzing to get it over the line, to get things finalised and now I can just concentrate on my football and the push for promotion.
On focussing on his football and nothing else...
For me, it wasn't too difficult. As far as I was concerned, I was always a Derby player. There's a lot of talk and things that will settle themselves off the pitch. For me, I've just got to keep doing the stuff that has got us to where we are right now. I've got to keep doing my job and keep doing the right things.
On how close he came to leaving the club when he was in the Academy...
There has been a few times when I was closing to leaving; one of them being when people were getting their professional deals. There were eight of us in our group and six of the lads got offered professional deals and two of us got told we may not get them because of COVID-19 challenges. I waited it out, kept my head down and a few months later they managed to sort something out so that was a relief. Knowing you weren't in the top six choices at the time wasn't ideal, but it didn't affect me too much mentally. I got my head down and that's what I've done since.
On his relationship with the supporters...
That was a massive part of me committing to the club because they've been excellent with me, they've always showed me love and support so that's a massive part of why I signed. Long may it continue.
On the team breaking into the top two...
We always had our aims and our ambitions but to see yourself in the top two and realise if we keep going, keep working, then we could actually be up there. You start to see the rewards with it. The fact you can see it physically is a nice feeling and we want more of that.
