Cove Rangers’ new signing Scott Fox wanted a fresh challenge – as it could be the last one of his career.
While Fox intends to play on as long as he can, he accepts that at 35 questions will inevitably start being asked about what is next.
Fox joined ambitious Cove this week on an 18-month deal, which will expire shortly before his 37th birthday. He already has designs on moving into the coaching game once his playing career comes to an end.
But going part-time and trying his hand at something new is an invigorating prospect at this stage of his life.
“It’s something different for me,” said Fox, who left Premiership side Motherwell last month.
“I’ve done some coaching and want to get a bit more experience doing that on my days off. But I want to concentrate on these 18 months at Cove as they might be the last of my career.
“It’s at the time where it’s a natural progression (to look to the future). Who knows, after 18 months I might still be feeling good and raring to go. I’m not going to cut it off.
“I could have stayed at Motherwell and seen where it went. But I couldn’t do that. I still want to progress, play and be a part of something.
“I was thinking about what I still want to achieve. I genuinely just want to win games and keep clean sheets.”
The best parts of Fox’s career came with Partick Thistle and Ross County. He made more than a century of appearances with both clubs and tasted Championship title success with both the Jags and Staggies.
The last few years have been less productive, however, with Fox an understudy at Fir Park to Liam Kelly and Trevor Carson while also having to recuperate from a cruciate ligament injury.
Injuries are nothing new to Fox; after playing a starring role in County’s League Cup semi-final win over Celtic, he missed the final against Hibernian due to a knee injury.
“Football can come as a luxury,” he added. “When you’re playing and enjoying football, you don’t think about it.
“When it’s taken away from you, you are left wondering what’s happened. It’s a wee kick up the backside at times.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of people and when you get to this age, obviously they are asking what you want to do. A lot of ex-managers and coaches have said to play as long as you can and that’s stuck with me.
“Coaching will always be there at the end of it.”
Fox comes into Cove fresh. He played four times on a brief loan spell with Queen of the South earlier in the season and had an emergency loan at Morton in 2021. But his time on the pitch has been reduced to a handful of appearances since leaving Thistle for the second time in 2020.
He faces a three-way fight for the Cove starting spot, with Stuart McKenzie and Kyle Gourlay, but has already settled in well at the Balmoral Stadium.
A friendly rivalry with Shay Logan has gone a long way to help him bed in.
“Every time I played against Aberdeen with Ross County, it feels like he scored against me,” said Fox. “As soon as I saw him I thought, ‘oh no’.
“Has he mentioned it to me? Of course he has. I think he’s got 50 per cent of his career goals against me.
“There’s going to be three goalkeepers all wanting to play. I need to come in and prove I’m ready to play.
“Hopefully if I can do that, then it’s a positive start.”