So good. But not always ... Cameron Humphreys' time as a Rotherham United player

Everyone loved the sound of Cameron Humphreys' mirth ringing around Rotherham United's training complex and Roundwood will be a slightly quieter place now that the defender has departed.

After three years, he has said ‘no’ to a new Millers contract and ‘yes’ to a new beginning at League One rivals Port Vale.

Not that he'll be gone for long. The fixture computer has got in on the act and made AESSEAL New York Stadium his first port of call as a Valiant on August 2 opening day.

Humphreys arrived from Belgian club Waregem in 2022, sang ‘Valerie’ at his initiation ceremony and continued to hit the right notes throughout his first campaign.

Richard Wood, Grant Hall, Lee Peltier, Sean Morrison and Bailey Wright all had stints of varying lengths at the heart of the backline. The Rolls-Royce at the side of them was pretty much constant.

Remember the dexterity on the ball, the calmness in a crisis, that dummy on Oli McBurnie at Bramall Lane? They were all factors in the club's Championship survival.

Really, the only foot he put wrong was on his 24th birthday when he brought in a cake the size of which was met with derision by his teammates. Contrite doughnuts by the dozen the day after saw him escape a fine.

The confectionery may have been small but the second-tier clubs checking him out were big. After all, this was the grown-up version of the Manchester City kid who had once nutmegged Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo in a pre-season friendly.

He remained in S60 but, in truth, would never quite be the same player again. A serious hamstring injury wrecked his second year - that grim, hopeless slide to relegation - and there would be issues in his third in the division below. The man with the laugh didn't always have something to laugh about.

Cam had class but maybe not the clout of some centre-halves and his languid modus operandi was arguably more suited to the sophistication of the second tier than the industrial skirmishing of the lower leagues.

Back from injury, he never found his form in the latter stages of the drop season when, with the honourable exceptions of Ollie Rathbone, Hakeem Odoffin and Peltier and the very honourable exception of Viktor Johansson, few players did.

His third year brought a sorry state of affairs when his focus wandered and led to him being exiled from the first-team frame for a spell under the previous managerial regime.

Always, he was a popular member of the squad, a lively presence when he was relaxed.

However, his comfort in possession was at odds with his unease in the spotlight. Standing at the tactics board in front of the group at Roundwood brought him out in a sweat.

With journalists, he was pleasant but guarded and never put up his hand to be interviewed. On the rare occasions he faced the media (twice), it happened with his insistence that it involved voice recorders only and no filming.

He was difficult to get to know but not difficult to like.

In January, then-boss Steve Evans made one of the best decisions of his reign and tried Humphreys as a defensive midfielder.

The impact was immediate. As a get-a-foot-in, make-a-pass-out operator just in front of the rearguard, the 26-year-old excelled at times before injuries elsewhere forced him back to centre-half during the early days of new manager Matt Hamshaw's reign.

Once, fans would have clamoured for him to agree a new deal. After three years, there was less fervour and supporters were divided over his importance to the cause.

On the basis that class is permanent and form temporary, Humphreys has plenty of time to come again.

He wore the shirt 113 times, sublime at his best, sub-par at his worst.

My last words to him were in the Roundwood car-park just before the end of last season. “Get that contract signed, Cam,” I said and was greeted by that familiar falsetto peel.

Yet, on reflection, it was probably the right time for a fresh challenge. Rotherham's offer was “a good one”, said Hamshaw, but the player saw his future elsewhere.

Vale are a club on the up and seeking to build on last term's League Two promotion.

If they get the Humphreys of 2022/23, well, they'll be laughing.