Cardiff City striker Michael Chopra has completed his £1.5 million move to the Blues, signing a three-year deal.

The 27-year-old, whose fee is officially undisclosed, says he sees joining the Town as a new challenge: "I enjoyed my time at Cardiff but this is a new start for me at Ipswich and I'm looking forward to it.

"I spoke to the manager and was impressed with his plans for the club. I know some of the players here as well and from talking to them, it was clear there is real ambition at Ipswich.

"I can't wait to get going and the target is to help the club reach the Premier League."

Boss Paul Jewell added: "Michael is a top quality striker who has a terrific goals to games ratio.

"He is a clever player with good pace and has a proven track record when it comes to putting the ball in the net.

"He's ambitious and so are we. He's the type of player we are looking for to help take us forward. He will bring proven quality to the squad and I'm delighted to have him at the club."

Chief executive Simon Clegg is pleased to have completed the club's first signing of the summer: "We're obviously delighted to have added Michael to the squad. It's a signing that I'm sure will excite our supporters."

His Cardiff counterpart Gethin Jenkins paid tribute to Chopra's time with the Bluebirds: "I would like to put on record our thanks and best wishes for Michael and his future career. He has provided us with some fond memories and goals, but it's understandable that he seeks a fresh challenge.

"We now continue the process of securing a manager and a squad to challenge in the Championship next season and will look forward to seeing both Michael and Ipswich at Cardiff City Stadium and Portman Road during the 2011/12 campaign."

As first revealed by TWTD, Chopra was at Town yesterday for talks and to undergo a medical with the negotiations being concluded earlier today. With the player understood to have returned home and with Jewell and Clegg both away from the club at present, no press conference is planned for today.

Town, who previously targeted the former Sunderland and Newcastle man during Roy Keane’s time in charge, are understood to have turned their attention back to Chopra late last month after having a £2.3 million offer for Doncaster striker Billy Sharp turned down.

An initial offer of £1 million was turned down by the managerless Welsh club but a subsequent £1.5 million bid was accepted by the play-off semi-finalists.

A one-time trainee at his hometown club Newcastle, Chopra, who qualifies to play for India via his father, scored 11 goals in 28 starts and 11 sub appearances for Cardiff during 2010/11, despite being in and out of the side due to injuries.

Overall, Chopra, who also had loan spells with Watford, Nottingham Forest and Barnsley before joining Cardiff for the first time from the Magpies for £500,000 in June 2006, has scored 65 goals in 142 starts and 20 sub appearances over his two permanent spells and two periods on loan with the Welsh side.

In July 2007 the 5ft 9in tall frontman joined Roy Keane's Premier League Sunderland for £5 million, rejoining Cardiff permanently for £4 million two years later after successful spells on loan in the second half of 2008/09.

Photo: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

GTRKing added 19:34 - Jun 10 where is carson is he gone? Hope not he was good.
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churchmans81 added 20:01 - Jun 10 Happy days!!!
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BurleyForever added 20:09 - Jun 10 How about Boothroyd to replace Scotland (if anybody wants him) Keep Priskin as back up
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Legend added 20:11 - Jun 10 Boothtoyd has gone or going to Everton i believe.
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BlueJewells added 20:46 - Jun 10 well done jewell, keep it up!
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PeekFreans added 20:54 - Jun 10 Welcome to Ipswich Town Football Club. I hope we all enjoy every minute!
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Norwichbeater added 20:57 - Jun 10 how can u call yourself upbeat blue nob
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Norwichbeater added 21:06 - Jun 10 whoppit go back to norwich u stupid cxxt
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h32 added 21:10 - Jun 10 One signing ( and a decent one at that ) of many that are required - shows how dire the situation is when people have multi orga#ms over just one signing. And the same people will think Clegg is marvelous now because he has actually signed someone - or did he ? 'One swallow doesn't make a summer' - but let's just hope there are more following this one.
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runaround added 21:17 - Jun 10 Very happy with this news. Chopra is a proven goalscorer at this level and at £1.5m could prove to be a real bargain. If he finds his form for us, today could be looked at as a turning point for ITFC. after years of mainly declining fortunes ITFC just maybe back on track, I feel he could be that important to us....C.O.Y.B!
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h32 added 21:19 - Jun 10 Daleyitfc - ....... guess you may be right, and a few sick notes may well be evident, which of course, as was proved last season, equals very few goals from the man. But let's all hope for better from him - this time round.
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Lightningboy added 21:47 - Jun 10 Typical!..I go on hols and the transfers start to happen...great signing,hopefully the first of many...good luck Michael.
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ericgates added 22:15 - Jun 10 GTRKing ..... you look hot.
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PimsNumber1 added 22:18 - Jun 10 Sorrry but woul;d have prefered Sharp . chopra has been injured and off form for a while and i think Sharp is sharper around the box, better movement , better finisher. Someone said get sharp in aswell. Cant see that , two short guys, both preditors and very similar
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Bluearmy added 22:19 - Jun 10 very good signing imo people moaning or saying hes out of form he's not really last season played 27 games (9 as sub) ‚ injured for few weeks of the season behide bothroyd and bellamy in the pecking order and still scored 11 goals Now to me with the type of season he had is a good achievement just imagine what he would do playing a full one next season
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GTRKing added 22:23 - Jun 10 Ericgate thats cascada lol not me
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ericgates added 22:32 - Jun 10 Lol, i'm sorry about that! Shows how much I know, i'm sure you're hot too! Best day to be a Town fan for a long time.
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Upbeat~ added 23:17 - Jun 10 @Norwichbeater My first comment was intended to be a satirical portrayal (or parody if you will) of the typical, depressing character that floods Phil's news stories with spurious insights into the club's apparently imminent demise / stagnating decline towards relegation. I guess I partly wrote it in the hope that some of the fans on here, who are usually so guilty of unneeded and tedious negativity, would read my comment and it would strike a chord with them - that perhaps the post would make them think twice before jumping at the first opportunity to criticise. Fair play for reading the post at face value and sticking up for the club though - as I was writing the comment I too thought it was perhaps too subtle to pick up on. The final sentence, my username and past posts were the foundation upon which I based my judgement that people would recognise I was in fact 'taking a pop' at admittedly a minority of the users on this board, rather than showing any actual discontent at the signing. Of course I too am elated after this announcement - the prospect of Connor and Chops leading the line next season is mouthwatering. I did write a follow-up comment ("Lol-jokes YAY") in an attempt to resolve any confusion that may have resulted from my original post. Alas you may well have missed it / not recognised it as an acquittal from my previous, somewhat contrived "stance". My actual thoughts are: 1. This is an excellent signing and for a superb price, especially when considering his age, his reasons for not quite performing last season and the previous quotations given to us under the Keane administration 2. This should be a lesson learnt for the negative and destructive element of our fanbase - that they should not be so quick to bring down the club and instead pledge their support. A few days later and we have a quality player stepping through our doors. Why is it that so many on here never seem to give our management staff, players, owner etc the benefit of the doubt? (particularly when all fans can do half the time is speculate - few verdicts of Clegg for instance are even based on corroborated evidence, let alone anything substantiated) Welcome Chops, COYB and Happy Days!

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power19 added 23:39 - Jun 10 Good post Upbeat Blue however we have to put things into perpective and say that as long as GRR Kings picture profile sits next to me next season, I 'd be quite happy watching Mitch Davray, Finini George and Adrian Paz!!!
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yun added 02:57 - Jun 11 Nice. Let's get the rest of the spine in order, PJ. Ingimarsson plus another centreback with a bit of pace as well as a fighter in the middle of park would be sweet.
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TrueBlueFerret added 04:51 - Jun 11 Could Chopra be are meal ticket 2Prem,any bets????????????????
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Dissboyitfc added 06:39 - Jun 11 Daleyitfc, What are you on about, when you say decent strikers score a goal every 2 games minimum ????? Wayne Rooney's scoring record is 1 goal in every 2.4 games or how about Kevin philips? 1 goal in every 2.3 games. I am all for people having opinions , but can some people get their facts right before posting, getting sick of ill informed negative posts, support the town and get behind Jewell. Oh btw, Chopra's goal ratio is 1 in 2.7 , my main concern is where the ammunition will come from at this moment in time, but this is being worked on i am sure. COYB

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dommyboyblue added 07:37 - Jun 11 Good to see we have followed through with the positive intent after the bids to Doncaster and that we didn't just sit on our hands hoping for the deal to come off. Great positive start to the transfer window, lets hope it continues as I am sure it will! Cannot wait for next season COYB!
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ElvisMariner added 08:16 - Jun 11 Like most people on here I am very excited about the signing of Michael Chopra and believe this could be the starting point to get things back on track....I think Paul Jewell is the right man for our club and will buy wisely....COYB
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StochesStotasBlewe added 10:14 - Jun 11 More good signings to come soon. Great to get the ball rolling with a quality striker. COYB.
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