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Friday 1 February 2019 15:04, UK
For a lad who grew up as a Chelsea fan, life must be starting to get a little bit surreal for Jack Marriott.
Now playing for Derby under Frank Lampard - who supposedly signed him upon the recommendation of John Terry - the striker can now also call Ashley Cole a team-mate.
"We'll have Didier Drogba here in a few weeks!" Marriott joked, in an interview with Sky Sports ahead of their clash with Preston on Friday night.
Marriott was one of Lampard's first major signings upon his arrival at Pride Park, and after a slow start he has developed into Derby's undisputed No 9. His apparent audition for the move came last season when he scored twice against Aston Villa for Peterborough in the FA Cup, giving Terry - then in the heart of the Villa defence - a bit of a runaround in the process.
"I don't know for definite but I know my agent mentioned that they spoke," Marriott said. "It was an interesting one, having been a Chelsea fan growing up.
"It's special playing under Lampard because I watched his career growing up as a fan, but it's a different a relationship now and I do what is asked of me. The first couple of weeks I often stopped and thought, 'it's Frank Lampard', but he's just the gaffer now."
Lampard has also brought former Chelsea and England team-mate Cole in for the rest of the season. It remains to be seen what impact the left-back will have on the pitch, but Marriott says his influence has already been felt within the squad.
"If you look at the career Ashley has had, he has won everything," said Marriott. "He has achieved so much as a player and, in my eyes, was the best left-back of his generation.
"He is also a terrific professional and he has been great for the dressing room. He is a good lad who laughs and jokes a lot and he is a great addition for us."
Marriott didn't score his first goal for Derby until the end of September, but it was a big one in their famous victory over Manchester United in the Carabao Cup.
Even after that, it was another couple of weeks before he would make his first start. The striker revealed he suffered from a lack of fitness in the early part of the season, but was always confident he could make the step up from League One - where he scored 27 goals last season and 33 in all competitions.
"It was a difficult pre-season with all the speculation," he said. " Peterborough didn't want me getting injured, so there was a limit to what I could do.
"Then I came here and had to do a lot of work to get up to speed. It was a big adjustment to make the step up but it was the best thing for me. I was training with better players every day and, when I finally started in the league, I felt I was ready.
"In a way I think those couple of months watching from the sidelines gave me the hunger and desire to play every week and score goals."
And score goals he has - 10 of them so far across all competitions in 28 appearances. They are generally important ones as well.
His seven in the Championship have helped earn cruclal wins against Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan and Norwich, while cup competitions have seen him net against Premier League opposition in Manchester United, Chelsea and Southampton.
"The goal against United was special because it was my first for Derby," he said. "You have question marks as to whether you can do it at a certain level, so to score on a stage like that was important for me.
"The one against Sheffield United was special as well because it was the winner and they were top of the league and flying at the time. Chelsea was good too, but the disappointing thing was we didn't get anything from that game.
"But there were full internationals throughout Man Utd and Chelsea's sides, so it does do your confidence the world of good."
Another fascinating quirk of Marriott's goalscoring prowess is how many of his strikes come from one-touch finishes. Since the start of last season he has scored 43 goals, and 33 of them have been hit first time. For Derby, he has only taken more than two touches for one of his 10 goals so far.
"I didn't know that!" he admitted. "That's quite a stat actually. I prefer shooting earlier because it requires less thinking and you can't over-complicate things. It also gives goalkeepers less time as well.
"I much prefer the instinctive reaction finishes because I'm not one to take a million touches and try to get a shot away after beating five people. The less touches the better."
It is not too surprising, then, that someone who relies so much on awareness in the box and instinctive finishing is a massive fan of Sergio Aguero. He may have been a huge Chelsea supporter but, at 5ft 8in, he was never going to be able to model his game on Drogba.
"I love watching Aguero," he said. "His movement, sharpness and clinical nature in front of goal is something to be admired.
"But there are hundreds of other strikers you watch and want to learn and take bits from, because you are your own striker and you aren't the same as everyone else. So you have got to try and piece together bits from everyone and see what works for you."
There was a time not so long ago when the likes of Aguero, and scoring against Man Utd and Chelsea, would have seemed a world away.
Marriott started his career at Ipswich but couldn't make an impact at Portman Road under Mick McCarthy, being sent out on six separate loan spells before finally making a permanent switch to Luton in 2015.
"I had just come off the back of a difficult spell at Colchester and it made me realise I wanted to be in a first-team squad and be a valuable member of a team.
"Rather than thinking any chance of playing in the Championship was over, I instead chose to see it as a chance to play in League Two and learn a lot about myself. I think dropping down helped propel me even higher, and that's why I'm at the level I am now.
"I don't think staying at Ipswich and going out on loan again would have been the best thing for me. I didn't enjoy the loans and I needed to be contracted to a team for a couple of years."
Marriott scored 28 goals for Luton across two seasons, then his campaign for the Posh saw him linked to almost every club in the Championship last summer.
The demand for his services meant Marriott could enjoy the attention... before he finally settled on Derby.
"I was at Malaga airport picking up my sister-in-law and I thought I would have a little bit of fun," he said with a smile. "I had a coffee in front of me and put out a tweet with an aeroplane emoji, and the amount of replies I got about where I was going was unbelievable!
"I had people tracking flights from Malaga to try and see where I was heading, I quite enjoyed that. But I never would have put anything out that may have scuppered a move.
"I came on trial to Derby when I was 14 so I knew how good the facilities were and I knew the club had the structure to get to the next level. Ultimately that is what I want to do and what we want to do."
