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Sam Tickle: Leaving 'home' for Bristol City, agent 'Albie' Wilbraham and the Premier League plan "I had a call with my agent who said that Bristol City were interested. I was pretty dead on with wanting to come" "Wigan is my home," Sam Tickle tells Bristol Live in an interview conducted within the walls of Ashton Gate, shortly after Bristol City's open training session. "I grew up there, and I support the club, but I think it was time for the next step. "I'm ready for that step. I'm ready, and I think I've been ready for that next level for quite a bit of time. It's just been a case of waiting for the right club to come along." Until this summer, that perfect suitor had not yet presented itself. After establishing himself as the Tics' number one three years ago, Tickle had regularly been linked with a move away from Wigan, with an ever-growing highlights reel, a place in the 2024/25 League One Team of the Season and a reputation as one of the third tier's best 'keepers naturally piquing interest. Premier League clubs like Arsenal and Everton were mooted as potential destinations, as were Championship sides Preston North End and Birmingham City. By the time the transfer window opened this time around, however, one club was mentioned more often than any other: Bristol City. Links between the Robins and Tickle were drawn shortly after the conclusion of the campaign and Roy Hodgson's interim tenure. After the appointment of Michael Skubala, speculation continued to mount. In the mind of the goalkeeper, however, he had been left with an easy decision to make when the phone ultimately rang. "It was probably around the end of May," Tickle recounts, when asked about how his move to the West Country came about. "I had a call with my agent who just said that Bristol City were interested and I was pretty dead on with wanting to come here from then really. "I spoke with the gaffer quite a lot before I signed about his project and things like that. I can't say a bad word [about him]. He explained the project to me and everybody involved in the club knows about that project. "I spoke to James quite a bit as well before I signed, as well as the gaffer and Pat, the goalie coach. They all came across well. I think it is just the ambition, really, that makes it the right club." Before he put pen to paper on what proved to be a four-year deal, however, Tickle had one more person to speak to about the prospect of a switch to south Bristol. The 24-year-old picked the brains of his agent, someone who took Bristol City and the wider area around the club into his heart whilst playing 125 times for the Robins over the course of four years. Four years in which he scored 34 goals and lifted both the League One and Johnston's Paint Trophy title under Steve Cotterill. "Obviously, I spoke to Wilbs, Albie," Tickle - who is represented by former City striker Aaron Wilbraham - smiles. "He told me what a good club it was as well from his time playing here. "He's buzzing off it. He was down here this weekend, actually. He was watching some sort of festival, an old school Ibiza thing, and he Facetimed me on Saturday night in a massive crowd. He likes the city, big time." Away from the pitch, the switch to the West Country has posed a new challenge for Tickle - one with no relation to football or his work between the posts. For the first time in not just his career, but the stopper's life, Wigan is no longer home, a change that has brought the sort of mundane issues that the majority of City fans will be all too familiar with. "It's strange moving away from home, but Bristol is a nice place to live," the stopper grins. "It's my first time moving away from home, but the people here have been dead friendly. "It's been quite easy, actually. I thought it would be a lot tougher than what it has been, but I've moved into my apartment and sorted everything out... Well, actually, I've been trying to sort my broadband out, and that has been a nightmare. "They keep cancelling it and keep saying I've not lived at the property for long enough, which obviously I haven't, because I've just moved there. They won't give me it." Looking beyond the broadband-related struggle, the arrival of Tickle perhaps filled the biggest hole in Skubala's squad within weeks of the 43-year-old's appointment. The Reds had found themselves without a first-choice stopper at the start of the summer, following the conclusion of Manchester United goalkeeper Radek Vitek's loan spell and Max O'Leary's January move to West Brom. Under the management of both Gerhard Struber and Hodgson, Vitek had won the hearts of the City faithful with several match-winning performances between the posts. That infatuation was perhaps, in part, a result of the knowledge that his time in the West Country was always likely to have a set end date. To some, stepping into the boots vacated by the Czech goalkeeper would be a daunting prospect. To Tickle, though, the opportunity to establish himself as the long-term number one at a club with hopes of reaching the Premier League is an incentive, rather than a cause for concern. "That's the plan, and that's why I've come here," the summer signing confidently explains. "I want to play games, and I want to take this club to the next level. "It's a club with ambition, isn't it?" Tickle continues, having spent the afternoon surrounded by supporters all desperate to see their side finally return to the top flight. "We all want to go to the Premier League; that's the plan. "It seems like the club's ready for it. That's been the plan for a while, I think. Nobody doesn't want to get promoted, but it's looking possible. There's an extra two spaces now, isn't there? "That's the goal, so hopefully, we can get there." That ambition mooted by the 24-year-old has been visible in the work the Reds have done over the course of their first transfer window under the stewardship of Skubala, new sporting director James Ellis and recently appointed CEO Charlie Boss. Tickle was the first of seven additions made at Ashton Gate so far this summer. The Wigan stopper has been joined in the south Bristol arrivals lounge by former Leeds United man Sam Greenwood, Ajax academy graduate Gibson Yah, ex-West Brom skipper Jed Wallace, Romanian international Lisav Eissat, fellow goalkeeper Brad Collins and Plymouth Argyle striker Lorent Tolaj. Three players, Sinclair Armstrong, Ross McCrorie and Joe Lumley, have moved the other way out of BS3, joining Göztepe, Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday, respectively. With a month left of the window, it has already been an off-season of change at the High Performance Centre, but connections are already starting to form, not just between teammates but also supporters. When the topic of the summer is raised, Tickle says, "It was a tough pre-season where everyone was together. We had a few team meetings and team bonding sessions, which were good and mean that everyone is in the same place. "The new lads have gelled pretty well as well, and obviously, the old lads have been great. It's been really nice to see the fans, having first met them on Wednesday night [during the Newcastle United] game. I got a nice reception then, and it was a full house, pretty much. "I feel like I've connected well with the fans. It is always nice when you hear your name. I'm excited, and hopefully, they'll be excited; I'm sure they will be. "The queue out the door just then, it was ridiculous," he adds, laughing, referencing the Lansdown-Stand encompassing stretch of supporters waiting for their chance to have their shirts signed moments before. "The fans away at Plymouth, away at Exeter and then here against Newcastle, they've been brilliant. "I'm really looking forward to the season," the stopper concludes, looking ahead to Thursday's visit of Walsall in the first round of the Carabao Cup. "I'd like to thank the fans for their support so far. It has been unbelievable, really."