Rotherham United player Reece James. Picture: Kerrie Beddowsplaceholder image
Rotherham United player Reece James. Picture: Kerrie Beddows
THE blank look from a new teammate suddenly made Reece James feel very old.
The left-back who turns 32 in November was chatting with summer signing Marvin Kaleta who left his teens only last year.
“I was talking to Marv and I mentioned a Walkman,” James said. “He had no idea what I was on about!”
The former Sheffield Wednesday defender is one of the elder statesmen in a Rotherham United dressing room that has a much younger feel to it after the summer arrival of ten players who are all 25 are under.
“It's not so much their ages, it's when you hear their birth years!" he grinned. They're coming in at 2004, 2005!”
James is excited to be working alongside such youthful talent but knows it will take a while for a newly-formed squad that is still a long way from coming together to realise its potential.
"Some of the lads are coming into a different environment, a different league, even a different country," he said, referring in the last part of that sentence to Dutch duo Denzel Hall and Ar'Jany Martha.
“It's credit to those lads that they want to come and play over here,” he continued. “They're coming out of their comfort zones to do that. We've got to try to help them as much as possible.
“You can see how much of an attribute Denzel is going to be. Ar'Jany has shown some really good trickery and feet in training."
By the way, for anyone of Kaleta's age reading this, Walkmans were how music was consumed on the go before mobile phones and Spotify took over the world.
The former Wolverhampton Wanderers prospect and James could become rivals for the same role in Matt Hamshaw's new era of wing-backs. With Hall seemingly nailing down the position on the right, a battle may be about to rage on the other flank.
James held the position through pre-season, kept in for the early League One games and will be hoping to be in the starting 11 again on Saturday at Cardiff City.
He openly admits he chose Rotherham as his home 12 months ago because he's keen to add a third success to his CV after going up to the Championship in the past with Wigan Athletic and Wednesday.
Assessing the new campaign, he said: “We have to strive to be as high as we can. When I signed last season, I wanted promotion. That was the whole reason why I wanted to come here.
“This is a club that wants to be achieving that. We're in a little bit of a transitional period at the moment but we've got to push as hard as we can. There are a lot of new faces. We have got to try to cement something.”
The experienced campaigner likes the mood in the camp. “It's great,” he said. “We're just trying to build that team bonding as much as we can.
“The gaffer's created a really good culture. He's brought in a lot of good characters, a lot of good young lads who want to learn, who want to drive standards in training and push the senior lads.”
Here's hoping that the Walkman oldies and Spotify kids can press play together.
Continue Reading