Imagine you’re playing for a middling French yo yo club. Let’s say someone like Troyes or St Etienne. You have no sort of strong connection to the area. You’re very highly rated although there’s been no interest from any elite club as you aren’t proven at the top level. Your wife would love to be closer to her family in Sheffield.
St Etienne desperately want to keep you & have been wanting you to sign a new contract even though you have almost 2 years left but your agent, who has done well for you so far & who you trust, has been telling you to not even consider it because there’s already interest building in you and if you carry on playing as you are your options could widen in an exciting way.
St Etienne eventually offer you a king’s ransom to stay. But Sheffield United who are hardly an elite club but play in Europe most seasons, offer you slightly less to go home. Slightly less, but it will still secure your family’s future in the place you & they want to be. What would you do?