New signing Tom Lawrence says he chose Town as his loan destination above other interested sides as he wanted to go to a club with ambition. The Blues are set to add to their squad further ahead of Wednesday's 11pm deadline, however, with Burnley pair Michael Kightly and Lukas Jutkiewicz now looking less likely to move to Portman Road.
Foxes midfielder or frontman Lawrence, 22, joined the Blues until the end of the season this afternoon.
Early in the summer it was reported that nine clubs were targeting him, including Premier League duo Hull City and Swansea, as well as SPL champions Celtic and Championship sides Aston Villa, Brighton, Derby, Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Wolves.
"Leicester are signing a lot of players so I spoke to people at the club and told them I thought it was best if I could go out on loan and have the chance to play regular first-team football,” Lawrence told Ipswich Player HD.
"I think there were a few clubs interested but Ipswich are a club that always seem to be up at the top end of the Championship.
"I want to be at a club that has ambition and wants to push for promotion and hopefully we can do that here.
"I have played in the Championship before and it looks as though it could be the toughest year yet with the clubs in the division but we’ve got a good squad here and I’m looking forward to it.
"It’s the first time I have been here and I looked around the stadium this morning and it’s a big club. I just can’t wait to get going now.”
Lawrence will now rejoin the Wales squad ahead of Monday’s opening World Cup qualifier against Moldova in Cardiff when he will be hoping to add to his four full caps.
Town are continuing to look for more additions to their squad ahead of Wednesday’s deadline with a couple of further signings anticipated tomorrow.
Kightly now looks an unlikely addition with Burnley having been unable to bring in the players which would have allowed the 30-year-old to move on.
Lawrence’s recruitment makes adding a wideman less of a priority for Town, however, Blues boss Mick McCarthy may still be keen to augment his squad’s strength in depth with Football League clubs no longer able to bring players in on emergency loans.
A like-for-like replacement for Daryl Murphy, who joined Newcastle at the weekend, is one of McCarthy’s targets but with Clarets striker Jutkiewicz - who as reported on Sunday was on the Town manager's list of potential additions - now looking less likely to end up at Portman Road with Birmingham City believed to be the favourites to land the 27-year-old striker.