Remaining with Peterhead turned out to be an easy decision for Jack Leitch.
The midfielder extended his stay at Balmoor into a third season this week and concedes he has never been at a better place to play football.
His contributions in the closing months of the season were key to Peterhead winning the League 2 title and achieving promotion. Leitch finished the season with 11 league goals, including five in the last four games to seal their return to the third tier.
While Leitch had been keen to explore the option of full-time football, there were no firm offers for his services and returning to Peterhead made the most sense.
He said: “I just wanted to continue playing at a place where I’m happy. We’ve had a successful two years and it’s the most I’ve enjoyed football probably since I started playing.
“It’s a club I’m really comofrtable at and like playing for. The staff, the board – everything about the place is really enjoyable. It was quite an easy decision.
“There were clubs interested but there was nothing concrete. There was never an offer on the table; just teams saying ‘we quite like him’ but never did anything. That happens, managers go and sign other players.
“I didn’t want it to drag out, so hopefully we can have another successful season in the league above.”
Leitch joined Peterhead in 2017 after leaving Airdrie and will come up against his old club in League 1 this season.
Manager Jim McInally has been able to retain the bulk of his squad for the coming campaign, with Scott Brown also affirming his commitment to the Balmoor outfit this week.
Leitch added: “I’ve been speaking to Scott over the summer and it’s a massive boost for us to have someone of his calibre staying.”
Peterhead have already returned to pre-season training, ahead of the start of the Betfred Cup in just under a month’s time. In their group, Peterhead will play Cove Rangers, Raith Rovers, Caley Thistle and Dundee.
The 23-year-old said: “You look at what Arbroath did last season and you see anything is possible. We’re quite a together group and have already had some success, which is a good thing.”
