Sean Hoare is looking for stability on and off the pitch after lifting the lid on his reasons for swapping Dundalk for Shamrock Rovers.
The versatile centre-back won two league titles and two FAI Cups during a successful four-year stint with the Lilywhites.
But with so much chaos behind the scenes at Oriel Park last season, some players were left waiting for contracts.
And Hoare was dismayed to discover that he was only being offered a fresh one-year deal.
So when the reigning league champions came calling, armed with a four-year contract, Hoare didn’t need much persuading.
Tonight, he faces another of his old clubs St Pat’s - with whom he won the league in 2013 and the FAI Cup the following year.
And of his move to Tallaght, Hoare said: “It was just an unbelievable carrot dangling in front of me that I couldn’t turn down.
“Especially with the uncertainty that was going on in Dundalk. I had to look after myself and my own future. The length of the contract was a big thing for me.
“In my personal life I’m not just looking after myself. I’m getting on a bit, I’m 27. I need to start thinking of myself.
“I’ve a partner now and I’ve things I want to do in life like try and secure a house for myself. You can’t do that going on year-by-year contracts.”
Much was made last season of the input Dundalk chairman Bill Hulsizer was having from America.
It wasn’t always easy to decipher if it was a help or a hindrance with claims he had direst input into picking the team at one stage.
Hoare admits the various ongoings off the pitch were a distraction and said: “It’s hard to do your stuff on the pitch when there’s so much crap going on in the background.
“But to be honest, level playing field, I would have come here anyway.
“It wasn’t anything to do with the management. The lads in charge, Filippo, Giuseppe and Shane, everyone is so nice. Everyone was great.
“It’s just what was going on in the background. You could still enjoy training and we were playing in the Europa League and you couldn’t not enjoy that. That was brilliant.
“Just when it comes to the end of season and you’re out of contract, and you still don’t really know what’s going on, you have to then secure your own future.
“Last game of the season, playing against Arsenal, that was a brilliant game to be involved in.
“I scored myself and it was a massive thing for me, but then two minutes later what if you get a bad tackle and you’re injured, and nobody wants you then?
“You have to look at it that way. That’s the reality of it. I had to look after myself.”
Hoare continued: “Filippo (Giovagnoli) understood. He was kind of expecting it, the way things were being run in the background.
“He was expecting a call to tell him I was moving on elsewhere. At the President’s Cup, I shook his hand and said ‘Well done’.
“There’s no bad blood there. He knows what’s going on in the background as well.
“Put it this way, I said to him ‘Do you see your son making this decision?’ And he understood. With his business hat, he couldn’t advise me to stay.
“I was disappointed. But that’s football. Once a club doesn’t have much use for you, that’s it.
“It’s a ruthless game. I didn’t take it personally. That was their business model. Fair enough. Each to their own. It just didn’t suit me.
“Once I heard it was a year, nothing else matters. They couldn’t convince me at that stage. I looked at my options and thankfully I’d the best one, to come here.”
