If the rumour mill were to have come to fruition over the winter, Richie Towell might have already joined a plethora of clubs in the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier and First Divisions.
Or if other stories percolating around social media were to be believed, the boots have been hung up and swapped for slippers to kick off a life in retirement.
However, neither is the case. Towell might not have signed for a new club since his time at Shamrock Rovers came to an end but he has absolutely no intention of retiring.
The six-time LOI title winner with Dundalk and the Hoops joined the RTÉ Soccer Podcast this week to cast his eye over an enthralling weekend that saw the lights go out (and come back on thanks in no small part to the input of a member of the Tolka Park faithful!) and the league up in lights as a record attendance took in a Dublin derby at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.
"I think if you listen to the rumours, I'd probably be retired as well," the 33-year-old midfielder said.
"I've heard so many different rumours, it's been a bit crazy I have to say. But no, I haven't retired and I obviously haven't signed for anyone.
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"I've had a few offers but nothing that suits me and mainly my family. I have a wife and two little girls that are my priority now, so I need to make sure that decision is right for me and at the moment, I haven't really had that opportunity.
"At the moment, the body and the mind feel absolutely fantastic so I don't feel I'm at a stage where I need to retire. So it's just about getting the right fit for me."
The Inchicore native's last involvement for Rovers was as an unused substitute in a 2-0 win over eventual champions Shelbourne on 6 October.
Towell's frustration at not getting minutes was very evident that day at Tallaght Stadium and subsequently manager Stephen Bradley would later confirm that the player was no longer training with the first team and would not be involved in any of the remaining fixtures in 2024.
Towell admits his frustration at a lack of game time had been building for a while but also added that his bond with Bradley and his former team-mates remains strong.
"It was just a build-up of frustration. Someone like myself, I'd be one of the first people into the training ground and one of the last people out of the training ground and I worked tirelessly hard every day and when you're not getting the game time that you want, it becomes very frustrating," he said.
"As we all know, football is a very emotional sport and sometimes the emotions get the better of you which probably happened to me on the day.
"But since then, me and Stephen we actually went for a coffee about three weeks ago and we were chatting for about an hour and a half, and we had laughs and jokes and everything was good.
"As I said, football is an emotional game, Stephen's been in football a long time, so he understands that.
"Stephen was brilliant for me. He gave me the opportunity to come home (from England) and to win three league titles with Shamrock Rovers and play in two European group stages.
"So for me, I owe him everything and as I said, it's just one of them things that happened on the day and everybody has moved on from it since then."
While Towell bides his time before taking on his next career challenge, he has been channelling his knowledge and experience into starting his own youth football venture, the Foundations Football Academy for ages six to 11, which started last week - and the focus is very much on allowing the children to enjoy it first and foremost.
"The first thing I said to them when I had all the younger ones in: 'We have some rules here,' and the all the kids are looking at me, thinking, 'Oh, here we go, we'll have some more rules,'" he said.
"And I said, 'The first rule we have is we have to have fun, because if we're not having fun playing football, we might as well not play'.
"So to be fair, all the kids have given me such a boost. The first day we had it was last Monday and we had rain, wind, cold, it was freezing. It was a proper winter's evening and all the kids were bouncing around, buzzing and it really gave me a lift and it was great to see."
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