If it has been all change for St Patrick's Athletic since their FAI Cup final win last November, that's even more the case for one of their defensive rocks of recent years, Lee Desmond.
The 27-year-old has taken the plunge for a change of scenery, ending a six-year spell at Inchicore and taking his career all the way across the world to California, where he has just started the season with United Soccer League side Sacramento Republic.
"It's actually an interesting story how the move came about," Desmond told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast after a Friday training session with his new club, who occupy the second tier of US soccer, albeit in a system where promotion and relegation does not exist unlike in Ireland and much of the globe.
"I had opportunities last year (to move) but I'm glad I didn't because we had such a good year at Pat's and won the cup which was such a big goal of mine.
"If we lost the final I was already gone, that's the truth. I knew I needed a change from the league. I was in the league for eight years and it was getting a little bit repetitive for me and I just wanted a change.
"Especially with Covid I was sort of saying, 'Jesus, your career's so short here'. For four months we were out of work and I was saying, 'Am I even a footballer anymore?' You sort of have them thoughts like everybody else. So I said, right, this is the time to go."
Contacts were needed to try and broach a possible move Stateside and that's where a former Saint made a timely intervention.
"I made a highlights video and Morgan Langley - I think a lot of League of Ireland fans would remember him, he played for Pat's in 2015 - he texted me when we beat Dundalk in the cup semi-final, just congratulating me and I said, 'Cheers Morgs, any chance of getting me over to the States?' and he said, 'Yeah, I've definitely got some contacts,'" Desmond explained.
Langley got him in touch with an agency who got the ball rolling further with offers quickly incoming from US sides. Sacremento Republic was the ultimate choice on a two-year deal where he would be joining a squad containing former Bohemians defender Dan Casey, who had arrived the year before.
Logistically though, getting US clearance sorted was more convoluted than expected or a "nightmare" as Desmond puts it.
"I signed my contract before Christmas. They put my visa application in before Christmas but it only got approved towards the end of February and they started pre-season on 1 February," he said.
"It got approved and then you have to go to your appointment in the embassy but the Dublin embassy had a two or three-week wait and it was just too long.
"So (Sacramento) looked around Europe for different US embassies that I could go to and get my visa and we found Warsaw. Dan Casey had to go to Warsaw last year, he had a similar situation, so I went to Warsaw for two days, had my appointment over there, got my visa and flew from Warsaw to Sacramento."
While all the logistical issues denied him a proper pre-season, he has had a chance to check out his new city over the last two weeks, which is California's state capital and also has a population of just over half a million.
And at the club, Casey, his other new team-mates and the personnel have helped ease the transition of moving continents for him and his girlfriend.
"They've made such a big move a lot easier so I'm fairly settled now," Desmond said.
The former Ireland Under-21 international had been away before like many young Irish players. For him it was Newcastle United for a couple of years at the age of 16, an experience which was difficult but will stand him in good stead.
"I'm 27 now and I think it's only in the last year or two am I really coming to terms with the whole Newcastle thing," he said.
"I've been on podcasts and interviews before and I said, 'Yeah, great experience, loved it and all this'... no I didn't. I actually didn't. I struggled the whole time. There were good moments like getting to train with the first team but the majority of my time I was homesick and trying to come home for weekends every chance I could get.
"But time has passed and I try to stress that to my family. It's going to be different (this time). I'm the one pushing this, I'm trying to go and I want to try it again."
At a much older age, Desmond feels more equipped for the challenge of being away, and given the advent of communication tools like Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom among many others, it's far different to a decade ago at Newcastle.
While he is still getting up to speed without the benefit of a pre-season, he made his competitive debut in Sacramento's USL Championship opener against El Paso Locomotive on 13 March - his first match since the FAI Cup final win over Bohs - lining up in all-Dubliner defensive partnership with Casey as they won 3-1.
As it turned out, the Irish players on the pitch wrote all the early headlines, with Casey conceding a penalty which former Sligo Rovers and Shamrock Rovers midfielder Richie Ryan subsequently missed for El Paso.
That first game - and the following match away at San Diego Loyal - offered an insight into the difference between soccer at that level in the US and the League of Ireland, with the former's attackers utilising more pace and power and the latter more technical.
Desmond also gives short shrift to those who are dismiss a career in the US as not serious business.
"A few people sort of said to me, 'Fair play to you, you've done Ireland long enough now, go over there and enjoy it and relax'. I'm actually a little bit offended by that because I'm not coming over here to relax," he said.
"I'm coming over to do well for myself and not for one second did I think it was going to be easy. I think the Irish have an impression that this league is lower and some of the American lads I was talking to think the Irish league is poorer, and to be honest I think the standard overall is similar."
Matchday also has a different feel to it. Within the USL, Sacramento have the best average attendance, pulling in more than 10,000 fans for the aforementioned El Paso game and averaging 7,000 in 2021.
'The best two days of my life, honestly the best two days of my life'
The thing that has struck Desmond is how much of an event each fixture is in terms of the build-up.
"The attendance is really good, that was part of the reason why I picked Sacramento," he said.
"It's different over here. It's not just a game. The fans are here probably an hour or two before and there's a lot on for them.
"There's events on behind the stands, there's a half-time show, fireworks going off and the national anthem is played and you can drink at the ground so that gets a lot of people in.
"And then we were away in San Diego last week and that seemed like a good set-up too, a lot of fans, big atmosphere, loads to do. So you're not just there for the match, you're there for a whole day out really."
The raucous atmosphere is a good reminder of the atmosphere in the Aviva the day Pat's won the cup four months ago.
"The best two days of my life, honestly the best two days of my life," Desmond said after listening back to his post-match interview with Tony O'Donoghue.
"We were so lucky to get 40,000 as well. With Covid and stuff we could easily have had an empty stadium. We got so lucky and then to get man of the match was an added bonus."
Head coach Stephen O'Donnell left Pat's shortly after the final, with some players following him to Dundalk and others heading elsewhere before Tim Clancy took over as manager.
But the collective success enjoyed together last season is one which is keeping a lasting bond between the players in that group.
"A lot of lads are still there and I think that was a big thing for Tim coming in to try and keep a lot of the lads because there was such a good feel around the place but Stephen created that," said Desmond.
But for now, his focus is fully on being wide awake for some California dreaming with Sacramento over the next two years.
In the full interview, Lee Desmond expands on the not so enjoyable build-up to a cup final, the promising youngsters at Pat's like Udinese-bound James Abankwah and Darragh Burns as well as the time he got called in for Stephen Kenny's first Ireland camp in 2020 alongside two other Saints team-mates.
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