RYAN Williams’ comments explaining his move to Perth Glory were typically honest.

It is clearly motivated by family, with the chance to return to his home city too good to turn down.

Williams is 28 and has lived in England almost half his life – he was a kid when he left Australia – and being on the other side of the world will have been as tough as ever in recent times.

FULL STORY: Ryan Williams leaves Oxford United for Perth Glory

The winger mentioned that various Covid lockdowns stopped him seeing his family for three years, which is unimaginable for many of us.

Sometimes people forget footballers are human too, facing the same issues and challenges that we do every day.

The situation with Joel Cooper, another player to leave Oxford United this summer, showed how those problems can affect a career.

That is often disregarded in the age of social media, which enables fans to fire from the hip with little thought of the consequences.

In the excitement of a transfer window, little thought is given to the impact on players' lives away from football: they might have to move house, their children could change schools, they may even be living away from their family for the first time.

It was refreshing to hear Williams talk about the personal reasons for changing clubs, albeit only because of the distance involved – his switch from Portsmouth to United last summer did not raise the same questions.

He leaves a team aiming for promotion from Sky Bet League One for a side who finished bottom of Australia’s A-League last season, yet you can absolutely understand his reasons.

That honesty means it is hard to begrudge him moving on and reminds us that footballers have lives off the pitch, too.