‘I haven’t come here for a jolly-up’ – Curtis Davies joins Cheltenham

Cheltenham have signed veteran defender Curtis Davies following his release by Derby.

It was announced in May that the 38-year-old would leave the Rams at the end of the 2022/23 season after six years at the club.

He moved to Pride Park in 2017 following Hull’s relegation from the Premier League, having played more than 170 times in the top flight for Aston Villa, West Brom and Birmingham as well as the Tigers.

He was part of the Hull side that narrowly lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal in 2014, scoring to put his side 2-0 up in the first half before they succumbed to a 3-2 extra-time defeat at Wembley.

Before that his two-and-a-half years at Birmingham saw him play alongside current Cheltenham boss Wade Elliott, with whom he will now team up in League One as they look to build on last season’s 16th-place finish.

“It feels good,” Davies told the club’s website. “It’s an exciting time for me, I never though I’d be able to get a new challenge like this at my age.

“I haven’t come here for a jolly-up. I haven’t come here to just wave goodbye to my career and down tools.

“I want to try and achieve something this year and I’ll be trying my very best to do that for Cheltenham Town.”

The Robins will embark on their third straight season in League One following promotion in 2021, with 15th- and 16th-place finishes in their last two campaigns representing the club’s highest ever placings in the English football pyramid.