New Shamrock Rovers signing Jack Byrne revealed that he turned down offers from clubs in England to return to Ireland with the Dublin side.

The 22-year-old Byrne parted company with Scottish Premier League pace-setters Kilmarnock and is returning to Ireland with the hope of kick-starting his career.

Byrne signed for Manchester City as a 15-year-old, having been back and forward to the Premier League club from the age of 13.

A series of loan moves to clubs such as Dutch side Cambuur, Blackburn Rovers and Oldham followed but Byrne never made the break through to the first team at City and he’s now moving back to Ireland in a bit to play regular first team football.

Speaking on 2fm’s Game On, Byrne admitted that his main aim is to cement a spot in the Shamrock Rovers side.

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The former Ireland Under-21 said: "The opportunity to come back and hopefully nail a place in the Shamrock Rovers starting eleven and play first team football was something that I just wanted to do and when I spoke to Stephen I knew that was the right thing to do.

"I think we’ve got a squad now that can been successful if we all dig in together and we all chip in, we’ll have a successful season.

"Stephen Bradley and Stephen McPhail are two unbelievable coaches and football people.

"I had options to stay in England and I weighed them up and I thought this one was the best one for my career.

"We’ve started back, we’re in the gym, so we’ll just keep ourselves ticking over in the gym and then it’s back on the pitch in January. It’s been a hectic couple of days but it’ll settle down over the next couple of weeks.

"I don’t want to put myself under pressure, I just want to get back and enjoy it. I know if I’m happy and everything is okay, I know my football will take care of itself."

Despite not breaking through to the Manchester City first team, Byrne believes his time with the Premier League club was well spent and has nothing but good things to say about the people he worked with there.

"I was actually back and forth since I was 13-years of age," he said. "I went away and done quite well early on and I’m delighted to be back now and I’m looking forward to getting going with Shamrock Rovers and putting all that behind me for now.

"It was a great experience for me. Obviously it opened up door for me to go to places like Cambuur in Holland on loan and I probably wouldn’t have go that opportunity if I was at a lower Premier League club.

"Because of the links Manchester City had at the time, Patrick Vieira recommended me to certain places. That was obviously a bonus and brought up opportunities I never thought I would have had. I’m really grateful for it and there’s some great people there."