New Town defender Ben Godfrey has admitted the first half of the season has been a learning curve having struggled for game time at parent club Atalanta.
The Italian outfit and current UEFA Europa League holders signed Godfrey for £11 million from Everton last summer but the defender only featured in one league match before being allowed to make the temporary switch to Portman Road earlier this month.
Despite the lack of minutes, Godfrey has enjoyed his time abroad and believes his experiences in his short stint in Bergamo have given him a new outlook on mindset in football.
"Very difficult,” he said reflecting on the season so far. "I’m a very competitive person so when football gets taken out of my life on the weekend competing for three points, I always find it very difficult.
"It’s one of those situations where you’ve just got to train hard every day and be as prepared as you can for when that opportunity comes. I had limited game time at Atalanta, hopefully I can come here to Ipswich, get more game time and help the club have a successful back end of the season.
"To be honest the last six months for me has really highlighted football in the sense that it’s not all smooth, not everything every day can go your way.
"As an English lad, to be chucked abroad and things not work out is deep water. You could say I’ve been chucked in the deep end in that sense, albeit it was my choice to do that.
"I’ve definitely become more resilient and in circumstances where things aren’t going my way I’ll back myself to get through them and continue pushing forward.
"I’ll just take it day by day. The Premier League is a league that I’ve been a part of for many years, I went over to Italy and at the end of the day they’re my parent club so they’re going to have a massive say in that.
"For me it’s day by day, I’m an Ipswich Town player at the minute, albeit on loan, and that’s where my focus is now.
"I enjoy learning languages so that’s something I picked up and was part of the move that I looked forward to. I speak Italian quite well which is always good.
"It’s difficult in football moving your family to a different country and adapting to different cultures but it’s part of it. There are low bits about not playing but there is plenty of positives that I’ve taken out of it as well.
"I learnt Spanish for absolutely no reason at all, I don’t get to use it in Yorkshire much! I decided to learn Spanish for just over a year, then ended up going to Italy so I had to start again.”
Italian football is known for its tactical nature and Godfrey is certainly not the first British player to make the move, but it is not just the differences in football style that he has needed to get used to since he left the Toffees last summer.
There is also the culture differences and the language barrier, but that is something the defender has taken in his stride and believes has helped improve him as a player on the pitch and as a man off it.
He said: "It was about 35 degrees when I landed which was unbelievable, so you have to adapt in that sense. Playing football in that heat every day is completely different, but then you have that advantage of coming back to England and it feels a little bit easier.
"There’s the language barrier, whether that’s straight after training and you’re in lessons or there might be things tactically which you don’t understand and you’re relying on people to translate which is difficult.
"Particularly the first week or two when the manager was speaking, you understand absolutely zero so it’s important you focus on your lessons and get that because that’s a massive part of it.
"There’s good players out there, I don’t think people respect the foreign leagues as much as they should. Players that have played over there will remind you that the players are technically very good and it’s still just as challenging.”
The transition to the Blues will be made easier by the similarities in style between Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini and Town manager Kieran McKenna, who has recently moved to a back three system with relative success.
Godfrey says the seamless switch will be beneficial for him, while also stating that he did not push for a move away from Italy despite not starting a single game for Gasperini so far this season.
"I didn’t have that conversation,” he said. "For me personally I’m not one to be banging on doors and having those conflict conversations, I’m someone who will get my head down on the training pitch and let my football do the talking.
"The intensity is high at Atalanta and it’s the same here, it’s important for me and my body. The manager here goes into a lot of detail which is good, players like that and that’s a similar aspect and similar formations at times. They do have a couple of similarities.”
Gasperini is not the only high-profile manager that Godfrey has worked under in his career, with fellow Italian Carlo Ancelotti having been the boss at Everton when he was signed.
A record-breaking five-time UEFA Champions League winning coach as a manager, Ancelotti is a man who Godfrey speaks highly of from their one season together on Merseyside.
The former England international said: "He signed me from Norwich. He’s a really relaxed character and he’s a great guy, his history and his awards speak for themselves as a player and as a manager. It was great to work under him.
"That season we were doing well, his ideas worked really well in that season in the Premier League. Then he went to Real Madrid and I wish him all the best.
"I actually caught up with him in the Champions League game and the Super Cup game the other month. He’s a nice guy, he checks in and asks how my family are and things like that so he’s a top guy.”
Following Godfrey’s debut in the FA Cup against Bristol Rovers, the Blues return to league action to host Brighton and Hove Albion on Thursday, with the former Norwich City defender looking to get his first Premier League minutes for the club under his belt.
Town are unbeaten in three matches in all competitions and have won their last two games at Portman Road, having previously beaten Chelsea for their first top flight home win of the season.
Godfrey is anticipating a difficult game from the Seagulls and hopes McKenna’s preparation on the training ground this week can be put into practice.
He said: "There’s obviously going to be spells in the game where they will have a lot of the ball, they’re a great possession team. They’re calm on the ball and they wait for the opportunity to carve you open, particularly through the middle of the pitch and they’ve got some talented wingers as well.
"It’s going to be a matter of concentration but the manager has us well-drilled anyway. The boys have shown that in the last couple of games that they can handle pressure from good teams.
"We’ve planned and worked this week to do that, the boys will go out there and try and do their best.”
Many of the Town squad have sporting family connections and Godfrey is no exception to that, with his father Alex having previously played professional rugby league in Yorkshire.
Town’s first January recruit joked that Godfrey senior was always being spoken about and says he is grateful for the support he received from his family when growing up as a young footballer.
"I have a background in rugby league, I played rugby before football,” he said. "My dad played rugby and always seems to get a mention in my interviews which he’ll be buzzing about. He played rugby league for York Knights, Hull KR and Hull FC, he’s well-travelled in rugby.
"My family are big rugby league fans and then I was the wise one who made the good decision to go into football. Now he’s the complete opposite and is football mad, he says he fell out of love with it.
"I owe a lot to him, he helped me massively in my career. He’s probably the complete opposite to what you think he’d be like – he’s not pushy, he’d just give me the advice that I needed and left it up to me whether I used it or not.”
Speaking to the media on his 27th birthday yesterday, Godfrey added: "I’ve had a few nice birthday messages. It’s a weird one in football, you don’t celebrate it you get bullied for the day! If it was up to me I wouldn’t tell anyone, I’d try and get away with 24 or 25.”