Wayne Rooney said he feared becoming a "dead weight" if he had remained at Everton instead of joining DC United, and claimed his boyhood club were happy for him to leave.
Rooney spent just one season at Everton after rejoining the club on a two-year contract in 2017, scoring 10 goals in 31 Premier League appearances in a campaign that saw Sam Allardyce take over from Ronald Koeman as the club's manager.
Allardyce left the club in May to be replaced by Marco Silva, and Rooney said the winds of change at Goodison Park left him feeling clear about the decision to move away.