SADLY it looks like it could be the end of Rick Astley in the changing room now that the younger lads have hijacked the jukebox.

Rick is the man. He has been like our national anthem for a while now, but young Mehraj Ahmed has come in and all we get is hip-hop.

Don't ask me who it is. I have know idea. Jay-Z is it? All I know is that Mehraj is like Michael Jackson when it comes on so, much to my displeasure, Rick could end up in the bin.

The new boys, Simon Jones, Gareth Andrew, Chris Whelan, Mehraj from the academy and the new physio Ben Langley have been such huge additions to the squad.

Since they have been here, we have played a few tricks on them, most of which I can't go into here.

There is a texting game that we have played on Simon. You send a text round like what does Gareth Batty look like and it comes back "some sort of slow thing".

We did this to Jonesy and it came back as a Buzz Lightyear because he is such a big, barrelled-chested bloke and his heroics in the Ashes. Also the new physio Ben, with his hair and beard, looks a little like Jesus so he is our Messiah in keeping us on the pitch.

Daryl Mitchell has earned himself a new nickname this season. We all think that he looks a little like Jimmy Nail so he gets a bit of a pounding when he comes into bowl with Crocodile Shoes and all that.

The winter has gone pretty quickly. I spent a bit of time coaching with Ben Smith and, now that we are back, we have had a few sessions with our fitness guy Dave Lowe.

If Dave tells us it's Wednesday, then it is Wednesday. He is into his martial arts and he has been having us doing a little boxing.

A few of the lads think they are getting a bit handy with the mitts, but Dave soon puts them in their place.

One day, I faked a punch at Dave, the next thing I know he has got me on the ground - the guy has buried me.

We went on a bonding day during our pre-season training and that was such a great day where you get to see different sides to everyone. We had a go-karting session and Kabir Ali was easily the worst. He was horrendous - Driving Miss Daisy to say the least.

There was a shooting session and Steve Moore was the man.

Being African, shooting big game on safari, he ended up with 48 out of 50.

Then there was paintballing. Benny Smith, the gent of the team, was like a man possessed. You could see the devil in his eyes. He turned into BA Baracus for 10 minutes.

The squad that Steve Rhodes has put together has got me the most excited since the first season I was here - and I am not just saying this.

I truly believe we are on the verge of great things and that starts tomorrow by taking down the Bears.

The time has come for us to stop talking and get some more silverware.

We have got the best captain in the country with Vikram Solanki and we have to get this club back in the First Division of both forms of the game.