Darren Ambrose’s agent stunned him when he offered him directions to Town’s training ground to take up an invitation extended by boss Mick McCarthy.
Ambrose, who has since signed a contract through to January, laughed: "I was talking to my agent about the opportunity to come here and train and he asked me if I wanted him to send me the address so I would find it okay. ‘You’re joking aren’t you?’ I told him. ‘I basically lived here when I was young!’.
"It’s brilliant to be back. It’s a big club — you can see from the fantastic facilities around the place — and it deserves to be pushing up towards the top end of the league. I think we can do that with the squad we’ve got.
"We kept a few in the transfer window and I don’t know what the loan situation is going to be, but I think we’ve got a fantastic squad with good players. If we start to get a run going of picking up points and victories instead of draws then, who knows, we could be pushing for the top six at least.”
Former England U21 cap Ambrose is back for a third spell at Portman Road, having clocked up 38 appearances and scored 11 goals first time round and then playing a further nine times during a loan spell from Charlton in the middle of the 2008/09 campaign.
He was released in the summer after two seasons at Birmingham, netting just once in 10 games and having spent the second half of last season on loan at Greek club Apollon Smyrni, where his eight starts and three outings as a substitute reaped an impressive six goals.
Ambrose added: "I didn’t have that many problems at Birmingham. It was publicised that I did but I wasn’t injured too much. I went out to Greece in January and played every game there in what is a very competitive league.
"It doesn’t get a lot of publicity in England and even gets run down a little bit, but having been out there I would say it’s a respectable league to go and play in.
"Touch wood, I’m going to be injury-free back here. I think there are 20 or 21 games between now and when my contract is up, and hopefully I’ll be available for every one of them. Then it’s up to the manager whether he wants to use me.”
Ambrose has made a habit of scoring some spectacular goals throughout his career, starting in his first spell with Town, and his 35-yard strike at Old Trafford in November 2011, which helped Crystal Palace to knock Manchester United out of the Carling Cup, earned him Sky Sports’ Goal of the Season accolade.
He said: "I scored some good goals against Ipswich and every time I tried not to celebrate much because I’ve got a good rapport with the fans. Every time I’ve been back they have been fantastic to me.
"When I returned on loan I didn’t manage to score any goals and I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself to score the goals. But I’m a goalscoring midfielder — I like to see myself as that — and I’ll be trying my hardest to put a few in the back of the net.”
Meanwhile, Town say they would listen to a groundshare request from Tottenham if one were to be forthcoming.
The Premier League side’s new stadium won’t be ready for the 2017/18 campaign meaning they’ll have to play games elsewhere for a season.
Wembley, stadium:mk and the Olympic Stadium are Spurs’ most likely temporary homes, but a report in July claimed Portman Road might also be a potential destination.
"If we did receive a request to help, we would of course seriously consider any proposal,” confirmed MD Ian Milne.
Photo: ITFC