New permanent signing George Hirst says he was immediately made to feel at home by everyone at Town when he joined on loan in January and that was a key factor in his return, the 24-year-old striker having signed a four-year deal after moving from Leicester earlier today.
Hirst enjoyed a hugely successful spell in the second half of last season as the Blues won promotion from League One and made no secret of how much he had enjoyed his time at Portman Road.
We understand the striker didn’t consider moving anywhere else when it came to addressing his future this summer.
"Something which was massive for me was that I got that feeling of being at home here and it was probably a feeling I’d not had anywhere else,” he told the club’s in-house media having penned the deal which will tie him to Town until the summer of 2027.
"For me it was, I’m 24 now, [I need] that little bit of stability and really go and find a home and really put the work in from there.
"It was the reception I got from the fans, the players, the staff, everyone here in the last few months, it was massive to come back and I wanted to make it a permanent move.”
Hirst says he kept in contact with plenty of last season’s teammates over the summer having felt a togetherness and a connection at Portman Road which he hadn’t in his previous spells elsewhere.
"It’s just a changing room full of doughnuts, I guess!” he said when asked how he settled so quickly in January. "The boys, from the get-go, literally from the first day were nothing short of brilliant with me.
"The staff, everyone just made me feel at home. It’s not one little thing that I can pinpoint, it was just collection of everything, which was probably something that I’d not had previously.
"There was always that something missing, whereas I found myself here and I didn’t have that feeling, there was never anything missing and it just went from strength to strength, really.
"I play a lot of golf with the lads and things like that and you start to form friendships. And that’s what I believe I did form, I formed friendships and to be able to come back and reunite with the boys and get myself in amongst it with this changing room is an amazing feeling.”