Town goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski has told fans he will definitely be signing the new contract he recently agreed to remain at Portman Road for at least a further two years.
It was manager Mick McCarthy who revealed a new deal, with the club retaining an option for a third year, had been negotiated but supporters have grown increasingly concerned with the fact that Bialkowski has still not put pen to paper.
However, Bialkowski said today: "I haven’t signed the new contract yet because there are still a couple of things to sort out. Hopefully, it will be done soon.
"I’ve still got the option for next year anyway but as I’ve said so many times before, I love this place and I love the club. The two parties want to sign the contract and it will be done.
"I’m really happy here and the contract will be signed. I still want to play in the Premier League and when I signed for Ipswich I was hoping it was going to be with them.
"Maybe we’re not going to win promotion this season but hopefully next year. It is every footballer’s dream to play at the highest possible level so it is still my dream.”
There were fears that Bialkowski would depart in the January transfer window, with Crystal Palace apparently interested in signing him, and he admitted: "There was interest and at one point I had seven or eight agents calling me about Crystal Palace and saying ‘I can get you that move’.
"But I was quite relaxed about it. If anything happens, it happens, but I just need to keep performing and playing the best I can.
"I have my own agent and I was telling the other agents who called me that they should speak to him. I was leaving it to him.
"I have had calls in the past from agents telling me they can get me this, they can get me that, so from experience I knew I just had to leave it to my agent and just concentrate on my job.”
Bialkowski, 30, goes into tomorrow night’s home clash with promotion-chasing Cardiff City still feeling the hurt of Sunday’s agonising experience at Carrow Road when Norwich snatched an equaliser deep into stoppage time to cancel out Luke Chambers’s 89th minute opener that looked as if it was going to be enough to earn Town their first East Anglian derby victory in nine years.
The keeper added: "It was painful and it is still painful. To concede that goal in the last few seconds of the game was massive punishment for us. We should have seen that game out and made sure we didn’t concede that late goal. But that’s football and some crazy things happen in football. We just need to get on with it now and carry on playing.
"Obviously, it was a massive blow for us. I was just trying to get to the ball because I thought it had come off Jonas [Knudsen] and I didn’t want to give a corner away.
"But then I realised I wasn’t going to get there and I was trying to get back, but I was too late and they scored.
"Every game is massive in this league and every game is hard. It’s going to be very tough tomorrow because they are a well organised team and they are flying at the moment.
"It’s not going to be easy but we’re ready for a scrap. The play-offs will be difficult but we are just taking one game at a time and we’ll see what happens. You never know, we just need to keep playing, keep believing and keep performing.”
Bialkowski was asked if the task was made all the greater because of the ongoing rift between some supporters and McCarthy, whose own future is up in the air, and he responded: "As a professional footballer I am just trying to concentrate and focus on my job.
"It isn’t helping but if we perform well week in, week out, obviously the fans are going to be happy and they will be behind us. We have to give everything to get them back.
"We have had a few good wins at home this season but not for a while now. We need to get back to our best and hopefully that will win the fans back.
"As a goalie you just try to do your job. We played with three at the back on Sunday but it doesn’t really matter what formation we play — we just need to get on with it.
"I think we played really well on Sunday with three at the back. We have played that way before and I think it works well for us.”