NEW boy John Ruddy is happily settling into pre-season training after his permanent move to the Canaries from Everton was confirmed this week.
The 6ft 4ins goalkeeper spent last season on loan to Scottish Premier League side Motherwell, having had various other loan spells since joining the Toffees back in 2005. But after only one first team appearance under David Moyes, the 23-year-old said regular football was his priority in making the move to Carrow Road.
"For me, this time in my career, coming off the back of a good season with Motherwell and at my age I just wanted to play," said Ruddy. "And for my family as well, I have a young son who needs to settle down and to come back towards this area, I'm originally from St. Ives, so it was an opportunity I couldn't turn down.
"It was the number one priority for me this summer. As soon as I realised the situation with Norwich about needing a goalkeeper. Obviously I knew they were going to go back in for Fraser Forster, he did very well here - but I made sure my agent was on the case every day to try and push it through and thankfully I'm here now."
For some leaving a Premier League club for Championship football would seem a step down, but not for Ruddy, who is hungry for first-team football: "No not for me. Like I said it was a situation where I'd played a season in the SPL, had a good season and the worst thing for me would be to sit at Everton and do nothing again. I need a few years now where I'm getting 40 or 50 games a season under my belt to get the consistency and to get to the level I feel I should be at."
Between December and February last season, Ruddy conceded just one goal in an 11-match spell - a run which certainly helped Motherwell clinch fifth in the SPL table and reach the qualifying rounds of the Europa League competition.
The goalkeeper believes last season has benefitted him immensely: "Just playing every week, it's a different mentality," he said. "I used to go training at Everton without a game on the Saturday and you've got nothing to work towards. With a game on the Saturday, you come in and know what you've got to prepare for and you make sure you're in the right mental state and physical shape to achieve that."
Having originated from Cambridgeshire, Ruddy was well aware of Norwich City before his move.
"Apart from Cambridge it was the closest club to us and the biggest club around the area. So to have the opportunity of coming here was just ideal for me and for the time in my career and personal life it was perfect.
"It's a massive club. It's slightly unfair to say, but unless you're from around this area you probably don't realise how big it is. But the set-up is here for it to be a Premiership Club, and hopefully in the next few years we can achieve that ambition."
Although Ruddy is firm in his ambition to make the Canaries' number one shirt his own, he is impressed with his fellow Canary team-mates Declan Rudd and Jed Steer who he believes will push him all the way. "I've been training the last couple of days with the other 'keepers and they are two very good young 'keepers. So for me to get complacent would be wrong and I've got to come in and work hard every day to make sure I make the number one spot my own."
To see the full interview with John Ruddy and hear what Paul Lambert has to say about his new signing log on to Canaries Player. Not a subscriber? Join now!
