Sonny Bradley says Derby County’s togetherness will once again be vital as they prepare to tackle the Sky Bet Championship in the 2024/25 season.
Experienced defender Bradley played his part in Derby’s promotion from League One last term, featuring 41 times as Paul Warne’s side secured a top two spot to return to the second tier following a two-year absence.
Derby were relentless in their quest for success last term and from the Autumn onwards they were consistently in excellent form as they saw off the challenge of other competitors to claim second spot, with the camaraderie created by Warne and his staff playing an integral role.
Bradley, 32, is now approaching his second season with the Rams after signing from Luton Town a year ago and he is relishing the challenge of stepping up to the Championship once again.
The centre-back scored the only goal of the game late on as Derby secured a 1-0 friendly win over League One side Stockport County in Spain on Friday afternoon as part of their week-long training camp.
Bradley spoke to RamsTV after the final whistle to review the game against Stockport, the week in Spain, his views ahead of Derby’s return to competitive action in less than three weeks and much more.
On playing in the blistering heat and the game against Stockport…
The manager said afterwards it was like playing in an oven and that is a fair assessment! It was a really warm day. It is not very often in the season back in England that you play in these temperatures, but it has been a good experience. It is helping us get fitter and you could see, looking at the boys towards the end of the game, on both teams, that we were feeling the heat a little bit. It was difficult to press at any real place.
It is a win, even though it is only pre-season. Richie Barker spoke in midweek about pre-season not being about results at all and that is true. There has been a lot of mixing the teams up and trying different shapes, so it is about coming through unscathed and with minutes in the legs right now.
On the week in Spain on the training pitch…
These weeks are very, very important for the season ahead. All the boys have come back in really good shape following our post-season programmes. The first couple of weeks has been about fitness and this time away has been about stepping things up with a bit of shape work and getting the new lads used to how we want to play this season. Watching the game against Stockport, you can see there is still a lot of work to do and some grey areas. That is to be expected, though, as we’ve only had a few days to work on the shape we are going to potentially go with this season. We want to go into the opening game at Blackburn flying and with everyone fit and organised.
On having a week with his team-mates off the field…
For any team that goes away in pre-season, it is a good time to bond with everyone. There’s plenty of work to be done, but it is key to getting new players settled in. For the second year in a row here we’ve had open talks in the evening about us as individuals and it is great to learn more about all the lads. It has been an open room and about whatever each player is comfortable with talking about. I am still learning about the lads that were here last year. It is important for everyone to know how much we care about each other. The togetherness as a group got us over the line last year, really. We were all pushing in the same direction and showed we have each other’s backs. That is important, because no season is ever straightforward. Last year, when it wasn’t going well for me, my team-mates had my back. It is vital for everyone to know we are a team and we’re together no matter what.
On embracing the challenge of Championship football after promotion from League One…
We know it will be more difficult than League One, which is an obvious statement. The Championship is a difficult division, and every game will be a challenge and every opposition will have players that will be tough to deal with. When I spoke in front of the boys this week, I said that I felt it was important we go into every game this year with absolutely no fear. There is no team out there we should turn up and be fearful of. There are good teams in the Championship, but it is our job to find a way to win. That’s the main message; give it everything we’ve got and start the season getting after people and teams straight away. We want to get to the end of the season with no regrets and win as many games as we can.
On getting back home on Sunday and building up to the start of the season…
We’re nearly there now! We’ve had a hard week and there’s still work to do. Everyone is in a better place than they were a week ago, so I would call it a successful trip away.
