Town defender Darnell Furlong has outlined his reasons for making the summer switch to the Blues from fellow Championship side West Bromwich Albion.
The right-back signed a three-year contract last month as he swapped the Hawthorns for Portman Road in a deal believed to be worth £3.5 million, plus a further £500,000 if the Blues are promoted back to the Premier League.
Having been at the club for three weeks and had a promising debut against Sheffield United, Furlong says he has settled into life in Suffolk after being thrown into action from the get-go.
"Really settled,” he said. "You settle in quite well and quite quickly with the boys and the staff, everyone makes you feel welcome.
"It’s just a case of getting on with your job now, you come in and don’t really have time to settle as I signed and was involved in the squad the next day, so you don’t really have time to wait and think about things, you just get on with it.”
Furlong had spent the previous six years of his career at West Brom, making 247 appearances during a spell that included promotion from the Championship in 2020.
It was clearly a difficult decision to leave the Baggies, but the 29-year-old was sold on the project and aspirations laid out to him by Town boss Kieran McKenna.
He said: "It’s never easy leaving somewhere you’ve been for a long time and somewhere that I really liked working and playing.
"But I said to the manager when I first spoke to him, the ambition from the outside when you’re not part of Ipswich is insane.
"To see what the club wants to do and the way they’re really trying to go, and that’s not changed since I’ve been here. That was the main pull to come here. Since I’ve been here, it’s been nothing but the same.
"It’s a strange feeling when you leave somewhere that you’ve been for a long time. You get comfortable there, you know everything about the ground, everything about your routine, set up and what the club likes to do before.
"So you step out away from that and you’re learning new things, then you’ve got to meet a whole new stadium and whole new atmosphere which can be quite daunting at times.
"I really enjoyed [my debut]. I just tried to do everything I usually do with my prep before and went into the game and I enjoyed it.”
Shortly after Furlong joined the club, the transfer window closed and the first international break of the season came around, which saw a two-week break for club football.
On the usefulness of that pause in action, he said: "Off the field, to get to know the place, people in and around the training ground, get to know the facilities and how I’m going to use the training ground and get ready for games.
"As a team, getting together as people, learning about each other off the pitch and on the pitch, strengths and how players want to play. Then finally the manager and his style, what he wants you to do out there and how he wants you to play.
"It was a good two weeks’ worth of prep that led us into that game.”
The Blues squad has no shortage of players that are familiar to Furlong, with no fewer than five of his new teammates having previously played for West Brom.
Fellow defenders Dara O’Shea, Cédric Kipré and Conor Townsend, and goalkeepers Alex Palmer and David Button have all turned out for the Baggies within the last three years.
"I’ve come into a whole new environment with whole new people but I know five of them already,” Furlong said. "It’s really nice to have them to settle into the club which is brilliant, and a lot of them play very near to me on the pitch as well.
"I’ve got a good relationship with a lot of them. They’re a nice group of lads and it’s nice to be involved in.
"They’re great players. The players that we’ve signed from West Brom that were here before me are great players and I’m not surprised that they’ve moved on to do great things, coming to Ipswich being one of them.
"It’s definitely a massively strong squad and they’ve only added to that as well.”
On O’Shea in particular, who is now the Town captain, he said: "From day one, Dara’s always had a great attitude. I saw him when he was very young at West Brom.
"A great attitude, leads by example no matter his age. I think him being the captain makes perfect sense in my mind before I came, and now since I’ve been here, I can see it even clearer.”
Furlong comes from a footballing family with his dad Paul having turned out for QPR, Birmingham City, Chelsea and Watford throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
Asked whether he sought advice from his father about the move to the Blues, Furlong junior said: "Yeah, definitely. Throughout my career, whatever the decision is, whether it’s something small like a little bit of advice from a clip in a game to moving clubs totally, he’s always been there for advice and things like that.
"He’s always just told me to concentrate on myself, do what you do and you’ll be fine. It was just a case of getting signed and then just getting my head down and carrying on.”
Away from football, Furlong has made no secret of the fact he is a big fan of motorsport and that he shares that passion with new teammates Leif Davis and Iván Azón.
"That’s my main sport other than football that I would watch at home and get involved in if I can anywhere,” he said.
"My little boy likes to do a little bit of go-karting himself, so that’s really nice that I have that at home to be able to take my mind away from football and think about things at home. It’s definitely something that’s a large part of my life outside.
"I’m still learning what the boys are into really and learning the different characters in the dressing room. I’ve spoken to a few of them, I know Leif likes his motorsport and we’ve spoken about the few races that have been on since I’ve been here.
"It’s nice to share things off the pitch with your teammates, build a tighter bond and get to know them as people as well.”
When quizzed on getting the better of former Formula One driver Nicholas Latifi, he said: "We went to Daytona Tamworth, which is not far from West Brom’s training ground. His lap time was on the board, the ex-F1 driver. When we went, I managed to beat his time. That’s my claim to fame, nothing to do with football, just that.”