Scott Loach has a month left at Derby County before his contract expires.
The 36-year-old arrived at Derby County on a free transfer two years ago, having been a regular at National League club Chesterfield.
Loach arrived as back-up to Joe Wildsmith in 2022 and made only three apparances in the EFL Trophy before he was pushed even further down the pecking order by the arrival of Josh Vickers.
Loach hasn’t made an appearance for the Rams since facing Man City U21s in October 2022, but has been a regular in the dressing room and played his role in helping the team to promotion.
The veteran leaves Pride Park on a high this summer, having already confirmed his retirement from professional football.
After spending 20 years with 23 different clubs, Loach finally achieved his first promotion with Derby and has heaped praise on his teammates – especially one ‘incredible’ individual.
Josh Vickers wowed Scott Loach in training
Speaking to Derbyshire Live, Loach said: “You could pretty much tell the team throughout apart from maybe one or two, but when changes were made, the levels didn’t drop.
“Skip (Hourihane) would say he didn’t start that many towards the end, but everybody wanted to keep those standards high.
“Looking at the goalkeeper situation when Joe (Wildsmith) was playing you had Josh Vickers and wow, he was incredible in training.
“But when Vic got in, it could have been very easy for Joe to kind of spit the dummy out but he was incredible again and it just flipped around. It wasn’t a rivalry, they were pushing each other through being competitive. I think that just raised the standard of training and I just felt we had that throughout the whole team.
“It was like people were there to back each other and do a job not that they weren’t the season before.”
Could he battle for the Derby County No.1 spot?
Vickers only managed seven appearances in League One last season, conceding seven goals in the process, but lost his place after suffering a thigh injury.
The 28-year-old had previously been a regular for Rotherham and Lincoln City in League One and is surely still eager to play regular first-team football at his age.
Vickers will likely want to battle for the No.1 spot now that Wildsmith has left, and perhaps Derby shouldn’t just look straight to replace him.
Vickers deserves a shot at the No.1 spot, but the Rams also need to bring in strong competition to fight him for it.
Though if the Arsenal academy product ends up on the bench again, then he will surely push for the exit door.