James: Everyone Is Excited To Be Back

Signed from Manchester United last summer, the 21-year-old enjoyed a strong finish to the campaign in central midfield alongside Andy King, and admitted he had been eager to link up with his team-mates on the training pitch once again after a month-long break.

Nigel Pearson took his squad through a variety of exercises as they prepare for a pre-season programme of fixtures that gets underway of Friday 12 July away at Leamington FC, and James can’t wait to get started.

“You get a bit bored sometimes when you have quite a long period of time off and I’m quite excited to be back and I’m looking forward to the new season,” he revealed to .

“I’m sure the season will come around very fast. I think we’ve got a game soon so as soon as we start getting into them it’ll go quite quickly. I’m looking forward to it and I think all the lads are and like I say we’re just glad to be back.

“There are quite a few young lads training with us from the reserves. It’s a great thing for them to be involved and obviously there are people fighting for positions and you’ve just got to try and put in as much effort as you can. 

“The Championship is a difficult league and anyone can beat anyone at any point. We’ve just got to try and be more consistent and make it harder for teams to beat us while still playing some of the attacking football we played last season.”

It was a gruelling first day back for the squad, but the hard work put in over the summer seemed to have paid off as James was encouraged by fitness levels on their return.

He added: “It’s quite a tough run and they have us doing fitness tests and stuff like that but it’s all part and parcel of pre-season. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed it that much yet but all the lads have done well.

“We have the test run where it’s quite difficult. There are ten runs, then two continuous runs and then a time trial and every lad completed it and improved on their times so it’s been a very good day.

“Everyone has been working hard, we’ve all had our regime to stick to and it shows that we all have done that and that’s why the balls are out so soon. We’ll keep the balls out but still keep working hard.

“You come in and it doesn’t seem like two minutes since you left, but everyone is excited to be back and hopefully this season will be a good season.”