Sammie Szmodics may have had the season of his life last season, but Town’s summer signing is determined to continue to prove people wrong as he steps up in his debut season in the Premier League.
The Blues recruited the frontman from Blackburn Rovers after Szmodics topped the Championship goalscoring charts last campaign with 27 league goals and 33 across all competitions.
Having spent the previous decade of his career in the EFL making 313 appearances, Szmodics has worked his way up through the divisions across spells at Colchester United, Bristol City, Peterborough United and most recently Blackburn.
Szmodics says his hunger for success has led to him to being a Premier League player for the first time, a destination he always had the belief that he would reach in his career.
"I love having a point to prove,” he said when asked to put his finger on last season’s success. "People will always doubt you and people will doubt us now. I went to Bristol City and it didn’t work out, in my first year at Blackburn I struggled to get going and people start questioning whether you’re good enough at that level.
"It’s proving people wrong without being too cocky and over the top, letting your football do the talking and do you’re work on the pitch which I think I’ve done in the last couple of years.
"Without these setbacks you wouldn’t be where you are today. I went to Bristol City, had a tough time getting in and playing there. Then two or three years ago I got relegated from the Championship with Peterborough and I remember saying to my agent that I’ll still play in the Premier League.
"We’d just got relegated from the Championship and I said I still believe I’m good enough to play in the Premier League and he was laughing a bit. If you set your goals and you really work hard, and the biggest thing for me is belief – I’ve always believed I’m good enough.
"I’ve always thought and believed I could play in the Premier League and now I’m getting the opportunity under a great manager at a great football club to show what I can do.
"Last season I scored a numerous amount of goals which I couldn’t even believe myself, and that confidence just kicked on, so hopefully I can bring that confidence into this season.”
On occasions where Rovers were not in action last season, Szmodics could often be found watching Premier League football. He now says it a surreal feeling to be out on the pitch in the top flight, as opposed to watching on from the stands.
"This is it, this is the pinch myself moment,” he said. "There comes a degree of pinch myself but also I’m good enough to be in and around these, they’re not like Premier League teams they’re opposition now.
"I’m a big West Ham fan, but there’s nothing more I’d want than to go to West Ham and win because you want to mix with the best and going to West Ham and winning would be amazing for me as a fan.
"You’ve got to find that balance of realising how much hard work you’ve put in to be where you are and really appreciating that these are Premier League teams, but I play for a Premier League team now.
"It’s about relishing these moments, taking it in and showing people what you can do.”
By his own admission, Szmodics’s journey to the top level has not been easy and straightforward. Cited as one of the biggest reasons for getting to today’s standard is his mentality.
Szmodics, who turns 29 on Tuesday, has fulfilled a childhood dream to make it to the top table of English football, but is conscious to always remember where he came from having progressively risen the pyramid in his career.
On his own confidence, he said: "It comes from your surroundings and appreciating where you are and that should build confidence anyway. Starting at places like the Etihad and scoring, I’ve got to take huge confidence from that because three years ago I was at Peterborough in League One playing against Cheltenham.
"I’ve come a long way in three years and it can all change so quickly, and who knows where I’ll be this time next year. It’s just about taking every game and every week as it comes, you need to take confidence from that. Whether you play a full 90 minutes in the Premier League, if you get one minute or you’re on the bench, you’re in the Premier League and it’s the best league in the world.
"Growing up as a kid it’s the only place I wanted to be, like most kids are. I can say I’ve achieved my dream, there’s a lot more to come, but growing up as a kid my dream was to play in the Premier League and I’ve fulfilled that and I’ve scored. Hopefully there’s more games and goals to come.”
So many footballers dream of playing at a professional level and only a small minority make that step. Of those, only another small minority make it to the Premier League.
As a result, Szmodics looks back on his earlier years in the lower leagues with a lot of pride and understands the huge jump in level between each of the professional divisions.
"League Two and League One are still really good leagues,” he said. "People that don’t play don’t realise it’s a tough standard. Then the Championship’s even tougher and the Premier League obviously the best players in the world want to play in it.
"For me going into Premier League games I feel like laughing, because it’s my dream and I’m here. The Manchester City game where we were prepping all week, you’re in meetings and the lads probably feel the same in the changing room.
"We’re doing individual clips on Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland and you’re thinking ‘these are superstars’, but we’ve got to realise we’re in the same league as them. When you play against West Ham, they’re just West Ham to us now and we’re exactly the same.
"You have to stay focused, the intensity is 10 times harder than Championship level. There’s a lot more that goes into Premier League games in terms of detail and individuals as it is in the Championship.
"You might only get one chance in a Premier League game that you need to take, in the Championship you know you’re getting five or six. It’s all about being clinical in both boxes.”
Some of his earliest football memories come as a teenager at Colchester United when Szmodics was loaned out to Braintree Town in the National League.
The Republic of Ireland international reflected on some of the moments where the standards in non-league took him by surprise, having spent his youth career in the academy at the U’s.
He recalled: "I remember I played on a Tuesday night for Colchester in League Two and I scored and won 1-0. Then the manager pulled me in and said I’m going to go to Braintree on loan and it was a shock. I thought he was pulling me in on the Thursday to say you’re starting again at the weekend and I was only 18 or 19.
"Training in the evening on Tuesday and Thursday nights, lads are coming in covered in paint from work and now you realise it’s a proper shift. A lot of them now are full-time, but some lads growing up, especially in academies in the Premier League, don’t realise what you’ve got here.
"I used to think that at Blackburn, going from Peterborough’s training ground which isn’t the best to Blackburn’s which is amazing. People don’t realise that 19 or 20-year-olds how lucky you get it. Lads are finishing work and going straight to games and it was a shock for me.
"I was at Colchester and the facilities there with the training ground and the stadium are absolutely lovely and you get everything given to you. I went to Braintree and we travelled to Halifax and it was on the day and even me at 18 I was like ‘do we not go the night before’ and they said we don’t do that here.
"It opened my eyes and without any disrespect I don’t want to play down there because it is a tough level. People are fighting to pay their mortgage down there, you don’t earn loads of money and the games are tough. You’re going to work and travelling to places like Halifax because you love football.
"I’ve played and scored in every league and if you said to me at 19 years old when I was on loan at Braintree under the Cowley brothers that I’d be in the Premier League scoring at Man City in 10 years time, I’d have laughed at you but that’s the journey that I’ve been on.
"I’ve enjoyed the journey because I just play football, I don’t go over the top with anything, I just love football and love learning. It’s taken me from one step to another and now I’m in the Premier League I’ve got to grab hold of it and stay here as long as I can.”