Michael Bailey David Fox admitted this summer has been the most exciting summer of his career - despite the prospect of another intensive Paul Lambert pre-season programme.

Michael Bailey

David Fox admitted this summer has been the most exciting summer of his career - despite the prospect of another intensive Paul Lambert pre-season programme.

The 26-year-old midfielder, who joined for an undisclosed fee at the start of last month, was originally signed by Lambert as Colchester manager 12 months ago - where a rigorous pre-season and training camp in Germany helped pave the way for a trio of wins as United started last season in some style.

Now at Norwich, Lambert will be looking for a similarly productive summer spell ahead of City's official Championship return at home to Watford on August 6.

Another trip to the private training camp near Bonn is booked for later this month, and with Fox signed on at Carrow Road for the next two years, he acknowledged the summer has been his most exciting as a professional.

The former Manchester United trainee said: “Yes, definitely. It's been in the back of my mind for a long time. I've had a lot of time to think about it and to get it into my head that I'm going to be joining a massive club like this. I just want to get started now, get on to the training pitch and impress.

“The pre-season I had last year under the manager, we won our first three games at Colchester. The pre-season was very tough but it was very good, so hopefully we can have a similar start to what we had last year.

“I think the basic fitness is such a massive part of the game these days that it makes pre-season so vital. One of the things he said to me was just make sure you stay fit, and I think that's the same with every player.

“You want to stay fit during pre-season so that you do all the sessions that they put on and they will get you to a level where you're competitive and, hopefully, you are stronger and fitter than the other teams.”

Fox is one of five new recruits so far this summer - with more expected over the coming weeks - and he does not anticipate any problems settling into a squad that won League One in ultimately convincing style last season.

“It has been a month or so since I signed, so I've been waiting to get started and now I'm here I just really get going, meet the boys and get on with it,” said Fox.

“We should be all right. From what I've seen, the lads are very accommodating. They will settle us in and it's up to us to make sure we fit in with the way they do things because they had a very good season last year.”

The sprightly midfielder certainly made an early impression at Carrow Road last season - curling in a free-kick as part of Colchester's record 7-1 opening day rout.

But Fox is relishing being on the right side of the City faithful from here on in: “That was such a strange game I think it will live long in a lot of people's memories for different reasons,” said Fox.

“They were playing catch up for a few weeks. But we could see it from where we were they were the best team in the league and they went on to prove that.

“Hopefully we can get a good start, get the fans going and give them something to cheer about early on.

“It will be nice to play at Carrow Road again. It's a beautiful stadium with a lot of fans in there.

“I've been fortunate to play there a couple of times - I love it, it has a great atmosphere, the fans are on top of you and for the away team, it's a very daunting place to go.”