New Blues keeper Alex Palmer says he’s looking forward to a new challenge at Portman Road having made a deadline day move from West Brom, where he had been since he was 14.
Town swooped for the 28-year-old as the transfer window closed having lost Christian Walton to a groin injury for a number of weeks and with Aro Muric struggling for form.
The Blues paid £2 million plus add-ons for the Kidderminster-born glovesman, who had spells on loan with his hometown club, Oldham, Notts County, Plymouth, Lincoln and Luton while with the Baggies.
"Hectic, but that’s football,” Palmer told TownTV when asked how he had found his deadline day. "I think it’s an exciting time for me to embrace a new challenge.
"Of course, when you spend that amount of time somewhere it’s obviously going to be a hard decision, but I felt it was the right time to try a new thing and take a new pathway. I think that’s all part of life.
"I’ve had a great time, I’ve met some great people at West Brom and I wish them all the best. I’m looking forward to a new challenge here.”
Reflecting on his new side, he added: "You see it as a club that’s going places and on a good trajectory and everything that I’ve heard about the manager is positive.
"Coming here and being part of a group that’s achieved a lot of things in a short space of time is really exciting.”
Palmer faced the Blues twice last season, Albion winning 2-0 at the Hawthorns in November 2023 before a pulsating 2-2 draw at Portman Road a year ago next week, Omari Hutchinson bagging a late leveller for Town.
"A great team,” the 6ft 3in tall keeper reflected. "They were both tough games. I think one of the highlights of last season was the game at Portman Road when it ended 2-2.
"The last 15 or 20 minutes was incredible, the atmosphere made by you guys was something to remember.
"I think we went away going, ‘Wow, that was some game’. It was a proper game of football and I think that’s a lasting memory I’ll have, and hopefully we’re going to have a few more of those.”
In 2023/24, Palmer jointly won the Championship Golden Glove keeping 18 clean sheets and this season has secured 11 shutouts in 30 league games.
"I’d like to say I’ve contributed to a difficult but successful period and it’s been great for me to eventually get there and become the number one at the club I was at for so long,” he added.
"I’ve had a good few years there, done my bit and ready for the next chapter.”
A former England U16s cap, Palmer played with Dara O’Shea and Conor Townsend during their spells with the Baggies.
"I know a few of the lads and heard good things about the rest of them, so it makes it a little bit easier for that transition,” he said.
"I’m sure I’ll speak to them a lot over the next few weeks and they they’ll help me settle in.”
He knows the challenge for the first few months of the three-and-a-half-year deal he has signed at Portman Road.
"I’ve come here with one aim, to keep us in the Premier League,” he continued. "That’s what I’ve come here to do and play a part and we’ll see where it goes.”
Outlining what type of keeper he is, he added: "I’d like to say I’m pretty solid, I’m vocal, I try and command my box and I think the defence will know I’m there. I think that’s what I’d say about myself.”
Having not featured for the Baggies in their 5-1 FA Cup third round exit at AFC Bournemouth, Palmer is available for Saturday’s fourth round tie at Coventry City, where he hopes he will make his Blues debut: "I’m fit and raring to go, the sooner the better really.”