Town boss Mick McCarthy believes now is the right time for left-back Aaron Cresswell to test himself in the Premier League. The 24-year-old completed a £4 million switch to West Ham this evening, signing a five-year deal.
"He’s been fantastic for us and we wish him well,” McCarthy told the club website. "It is the right time for Cressy to move on though and test himself in the Premier League.
"There comes a time when a deal has to be done. That has to be fair for everyone though. It needs to be the right deal for the club and the player and if it is the right deal for Cressy then he was always going to want to move on.
"He served his apprenticeship at Tranmere and then extended that here and became one of the best players in the Championship.”
We understand that the fee includes some top-ups, likely to be the usual milestone appearance clauses.
Cresswell's former club Tranmere Rovers are entitled to 20 per cent of the profit the Blues have made on the £420,000 they paid for him following his summer 2011 switch to Portman Road.
A Football League tribunal set a compensation figure of an initial £240,000 plus milestone clauses, with only a £100,000 payment on promotion to the Premier League not triggered.
Cresswell, named in the Championship Team of Year for 2013/14, made 138 appearances for Town, all starts, scoring seven goals. He will join up with the West Ham squad for their training camp in France tomorrow.
Coincidentally, West Ham are at Portman Road for their first friendly of pre-season on Wednesday 16th July (KO 7.45pm).