Ipswich Town have completed the signing of Bristol City winger Paul Anderson, with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas going in the opposite direction.

We revealed 10 days ago that a deal was close and the 24-year-old has now signed a two-year contract at the club in a move that sees Emmanuel-Thomas head to Ashton Gate to be reunited with Sean O’Driscoll, who he played under at Doncaster.

Anderson was previously at Nottingham Forest, prior to his switch to the West Country, and made 130 appearances for the Reds. The winger played alongside David McGoldrick and Luke Chambers and Nottingham Forest, as well as fellow new Blues recruit Cole Skuse at Ashton gate.

Emmanuel-Thomas scored nine goals in two seasons with the Blues after his move from Arsenal for an undisclosed fee, reported to be around £1.1m.

It’s understood that Ipswich came to a financial agreement with Emmanuel-Thomas over the final year of his contract, enabling the Robins – newly-relegated to League One – to be in a position to afford a deal. There is no transfer fee involved, with the transfer a straight swap.

“There has been talk about the move for a couple of weeks now and obviously I’m delighted that it’s gone through,” said Anderson.

“Chambo rang me a while back and said he’d heard whispers that I might be coming here. He told me the gaffer was keen but it was only this morning that I actually sat down and spoke with the manager.

“My agent has been in contact with the club and the manager. I’ve left him to do that but as soon as I heard Ipswich were interested in me, I was hoping it would happen.

“It’s a massive club with a great history and has a manager that is a big name in the game. The gaffer really turned Ipswich’s fortunes around last season and the form they showed after his arrival would have had the team right up there challenging at the top of the table.

“You can tell there is real buzz about the place, just from meeting the people behind the scenes and I can’t wait to get going here.

“This is the first time I have seen the stadium in the daylight as well. Every time I have played here, it’s been on a wet Tuesday night.”

Meanwhile, Emmanuel-Thomas says the chance to work under Sean O’Driscoll at Bristol City was a big influence on his decision to join the Robins. The 22-year-old previously played for the Robins boss during a loan spell at Doncaster while an Arsenal player.

He said: “He had a big influence on my decision to come here as I know how he likes to play and I know what he expects of me. I had a really good spell with him at Doncaster. I thought by returning to him I could get back to how I was.”