DerbyMad: It hardly seems five minutes since we were waving you of on your summer break.
Ian Taylor: Yes it’s amazing how quick it’s all gone. Like you say, no sooner are we walking off the pitch than we are back in again running our whatsits off. It’s nice to be back. There are a few new faces in the squad as well. It’s nice to see all the lads again and straight back into training.
DM: Just think how much shorter that break would have been if you had taken up that offer of international football.
IT: I know. I can imagine just how knackered my legs would be by now. The rest has done me good and I’m glad that I made that decision, albeit a difficult one.
DM: Does starting pre-season training get harder with each year?
IT: It feels exactly the same as it did all those years ago. It’s going to be tough – it’s always tough but it’s something that you have to do.
DM You go into the new season with fans already looking at last season performances, certainly at home, saying that Derby finished strongly, the club has signed three new players and is looking at signing one more and are can now go for promotion. Is that realistic?
IT: I think top half is realistic. Anything after that would be a bonus this year. I look at the season in stages. If we are up there around Christmas then of course you are going to start talking about promotion, but we have to see how we start of first.
DM: You signed for Derby for a year with a second year’s option. You obviously thought that you would be doing something better than helping to pull them out of the bottom three. Is there an element of unfinished business about the second year?
IT: Definitely so. I wanted to stay here. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve had here and I’ve enjoyed being captain of the team and I’ve enjoyed helping to bring some of the youngsters through and pass my experience onto people. We’re a big club and we shouldn’t be in the First Division. I want to do something to help us get up to where we belong.
DM: What is the plan for you then? You have got this second year is that it then? Will you be hanging up your boots then or is that a decision that you will be making later on?
IT: I don’t know. We’ll se how the legs go. Of course I’d like to stay here as long as I can. I’d like to play football as long as I can. You ask any footballer and they will tell you that when they are finished they do miss it and I want to play as long as I can so we will have to see at the end of this season.
DM: We’ve made the point before possibly, but you started in non-league, and the attitude that you have got seems to be prevalent amongst those such as yourself and Les Ferdinand who started at the bottom that you go as far as you can get and you want to keep it as long as you can.
IT: Of course. I enjoy playing football at the end of the day. The normal man on the street enjoys going out playing on a Sunday morning and we are no different.
DM: Presumably the hard slog of this part of pre-season is the bit that you don’t enjoy?
IT: No, at all. I’m getting too old for it (chuckles). You have to enjoy it. It’s normal and it’s something you have to do.
DM: What do you say to the young professionals then who are just starting in the game and complaining?
IT: I say get back here with me at the back. No seriously just enjoy it. Of course it’s going o be a bit easier for them, but just enjoy it because it’s all part and parcel.
DM: Presumably you are looking forward to kicking the first ball in anger?
IT: In anger yeah (laughs) definitely.