Zach Clough has waved goodbye to English football by swapping Carlisle for Australia, six years after controversially turning down a move to Bristol City.
The 26-year-old has been handed a free transfer from the League Two club after informing the chairman he wanted out following contact with Adelaide United.
The former Bolton forward, who never lived up to his promise after breaking through at The Trotters, has never been in the good books of City supporters.
It all boiled down to January 2016 when former Robins manager Steve Cotterill had a £2million bid accepted for the player to help bolster City's survival chances.
The move was widely expected to go through with Bolton sitting rock-bottom of the Championship - where they remained for the duration of the campaign.
Despite Cotterill's "good and fair offer", Clough later admitted it took 10 seconds to decide against the move to Ashton Gate after his dad laughed at the transfer.
Clough would later recall: "When the bid was put in, I found out about 10pm the night before we played Eastleigh. I phoned my dad and he started laughing. He said ‘no chance’. And that was it.
"I wanted to show respect to Bristol City and it was great that they wanted me. But we made the decision 10 seconds after the offer went in. I wouldn’t have changed my mind.
"My dad has been a big influence on my career all the way back to being eight years old and picking Bolton instead of Manchester United."
Cotterill, who was sacked from City in the same month, provided an insight into the five-hour negotiations and the demands from Clough's agent at the time.
He said: "I spent five hours on Sunday with Zach, his Dad and his agent. I think, initially, the lad wasn’t enamoured with coming to Bristol City.
"Then you meet him and I think he saw us in a different light. The agent said to me that the deal would need to be a head-turning offer. We made an offer but obviously it wasn’t head-turning enough.
"Having said that, I think the offer was good and fair and one that fits with our players (in terms of wages).
"In the end it was a no-go, but I still believe we were right not to pay what his agent wanted. I don't think he was being greedy, I understand it and I wish him all the best for the rest of the season, there’s no animosity there."
Clough would later leave Bolton for Nottingham Forest for a reported £3m in January 2017 but was back at his boyhood club just a year later on loan. He then went to Rochdale on loan before signing for Wigan for six months who released him at the end of his contract.
Clough ended up at Carlisle on a two-year deal last summer but had his contract mutually terminated to secure his move Down Under.
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