Former Manchester United defender Jonny Evans has said he left Old Trafford at the right time in his career and credited former United boss Louis van Gaal for helping his development.
Now at West Brom, the 29-year-old Northern Ireland man recalls the advice given to him from former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson before exiting the club in the summer of 2015.
"There were a few whispers and I was playing golf one day at one of the United Foundation events," Evans told outlets in the UK. "Sir Alex took me to the side, sitting on the golf buggy, and talked it through with me. He's obviously big friends with Tony Pulis [at West Bromwich Albion] and was pushing me in that direction. I thanked him for that at the time and took his advice."
England international Michael Keane was sold months before Evans' departure from the club -- a move that surprised him at the time.
"There were a lot of decisions at the end with United that were made quite quickly," Evans said. "I'm not saying that on behalf of myself, but I was surprised that Michael Keane was sold at the time. Having been in his position myself and come through United's academy, I was surprised at that one.
"Me, on the other hand, that wasn't a surprise. I could see the signs. I felt like it was the time for that to happen. There was no problem. I was looking forward to a new challenge because I knew that once I got playing again, I could really push on.
"I don't think I would have ever left the club if I'd had that feeling of 'What if?' You had Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, two young England centre-backs, Marcos Rojo had come in as a new signing. They were younger than me and if there was anyone that was going to move on ... I'm not saying that I was playing the worst at the time and they were playing so far ahead, but they were playing more games than me."
The former Sunderland man harbours no ill-will toward Van Gaal, who'd deemed him surplus to requirements ahead of the 2015-16 season.
"I broke my foot at the start of Van Gaal's first season against Leicester away and I had the spitting ban [Evans was banned for six matches for spitting at Newcastle United striker Papiss Cisse]," he added. "I missed an awful lot of that season but I learned so much playing for Van Gaal in that one year it was crazy.
"Whatever people say about him and his spell in charge of United, he was a fantastic coach. I learned as much in that one year as I did in a lot of years as a Premier League footballer. He was very into his positional play and team shape, no matter if you were a centre-back, a midfielder or a winger.
"But I never felt I was in the right frame of mind or had the right opportunity to show him that. It probably wasn't until six months or a year after leaving where things started clicking into place and I started to understand the things that he was talking about a lot better. I did a lot of thinking in that spell."