Town boss Kieran McKenna says midfielder Scott Fraser, who moved on to Charlton on Monday, was desperate to leave Portman Road during the transfer window having not settled since joining from the MK Dons in the summer.
"Fraser departed for the Addicks on Monday for an undisclosed fee understood to be in excess of the sum paid to the Dons in the summer.
Asked about how the deal came about, McKenna said: "I didn’t get the chance to see Scott live in a match or work with him for too long in a short period.
"That was one where Scott was desperate to go, to be honest, from early conversations with him.
"He felt like he hadn’t quite settled at the club how he wanted. He came in in the summer as part of a big recruitment drive and a lot of good players came in here in the summer, and he didn’t feel like he’d managed to settle from the football point of view or the personal point of view how he would have wanted.
"He was very keen and really had a strong desire to go and play somewhere where he felt he was going to be an automatic first choice and wanted to feel like he was the main man at a club.
"I had some discussions with him, obviously respected his opinion on that, and he was respectful and highly thought of here, was a player who I didn’t get to see very much.
"But it was one where it was more about Scott’s personal wishes and respecting the wishes of the player and his desire to go somewhere where he felt he was going to be an automatic starter and one of the biggest players at the club.
"Obviously for us, the group dynamic is very important to me, having the right numbers and the right depth and also having players here who really want to be part of the squad, who feel an affinity to where we want to go to and are ready to contribute to the squad whenever they’re needed is very important for us.
"We felt like that was the best move for everyone at that stage. A good offer came in from Charlton that was something Scott wanted to pursue. As a club we feel that we have good numbers and good depth in that position and that was how it progressed over the last few days.
"We wish Scott all the best, obviously we move forward here with the players that we have and we feel like we have good cover in that position and we can only wish Scott the best in his time at Charlton.”