Zak Vyner admits discussions took place for him to leave Bristol City this summer after falling out of Nigel Pearson's plans last season only for the defender to play his way back into favour at Ashton Gate.
The centre-back is enjoying a resurgence in the Robins side having started all eight league matches, including playing his part in three consecutive clean sheets at Ashton Gate in their last three matches in BS3.
It's credit to the 25-year-old for his ability to pick himself up and dust himself off following a campaign that had him questioning his own game and confidence. Before the opening day of the season, Vyner's previous start in a City shirt came in April after a series of individual errors essentially lost the faith of the manager.
It was expected that Vyner would leave the club this summer but his form in pre-season and City's lack of options at the back meant he was handed the opportunity to regain the trust of both Pearson and the supporters.
"There were conversations about that (leaving)." Vyner said, having made his 100th appearance for City in last Saturday's 3-2 win at Blackburn. "It was a conversation that we had and I had to try and adapt to.
"I didn't want to have that conversation in my head when I was coming back to pre-season. I wanted to make sure that I stayed focused on where I wanted to be and in pre-season make sure I was in the fittest and best shape that I could have been in for wherever that was going to be.
"Last season was tough. Of course everyone wants to play football. Everyone here wants to be starting.
"It was tough to be watching and not playing. It was something I had to look at myself, ask why I wasn't playing and pick that apart but at the same time, I had to be a teammate too. I had to make sure that the person in front of me, I was there to support them too.
"I wasn't going to sit there and say I should be playing in front of you. I'm here to support them as well so it was tough of course, but I was trying to work hard to get back in and this season I've been more consistent to stay in the team."
Vyner was refreshingly honest about his spell out of the team. The season prior, he was a permanent fixture at the back making 49 appearances across all competitions but he was limited to just 22 last campaign. He knew there were aspects of his game he needed to improve on to force his way back into the side and took time to study his game and that of his team-mates to come back a better player.
When asked what part of his game has pleased him the most, he added: "The defensive side of things. I won't shy away from it, I know there were things that I needed to improve on, and this year I've looked a lot more solid and I've felt more solid and so far as a team, I think we've been more solid and that helps.
"I'm always trying to learn and observe in the team and be a like a sponge. If there was someone doing better than me in the team in that aspect I will try and watch them and do little things I can pick up and change and just add to my game really.
"So the defensive side of things and also in possession. We want to build from the back too so we want to be comfortable on the ball and just know the patterns so it's just an all-round thing of trying to keep the standards high and when we're at that level, we can perform really well.
"We're building together but as personnel on the pitch we're trying to improve ourselves with tweaks and trying to take it in our stride of the relentless season we have and trying to tweak things here and there so if we do have ebbs and flows in the season, we try and make sure we stick to where we were previously in regards to our good standard."
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