Greg Docherty has revealed Steven Gerrard told him to leave Rangers and prove himself by winning the league at Hull City.
And watching his old team-mates run away with the Premiership helped inspire him to drive the Tigers to League One glory in England and a return to the Championship.
Hull were relegated last season but bounced straight back up and Docherty believes it justifies his decision to call time on his Rangers career.
The midfielder had struggled for game time under Gerrard and had loan spells at Shrewsbury and Hibs before moving on to Hull.
And although it broke his heart to leave his boyhood heroes, he knew he had to do it to improve as a player and develop into what he can be with more game time.
He told PA: "I spoke to Steven Gerrard when I was leaving Rangers and he said he thought Hull would be a good challenge for me as we could try to win the league.
"But it's so easy to say 'go win the league' - it's nowhere near as straight forward as that.
"To pip Peterborough we've had to go the last 14 games unbeaten, winning 11 of them.
"It's a majorly gruelling league with 46 fixtures. At the start of the season, there was probably eight or nine teams thinking they could challenge.
"So there's a lot of relief that we've got promotion. Once we clinched that, I thought to myself, 'Naw, that's not enough. I want a medal'.
"I've always wanted to win trophies. I'm 24 and I can now say I've ticked that off. A lot of people have brilliant careers but never win anything, so that's why I'll always remember this season and this moment.
"Since Christmas I feel like I've grown and really kicked on. I definitely made the right call coming down here.
"I've got almost 50 games under my belt and now a league medal too.
"Now I just can't wait for Sunday's game against Charlton and the chance to get my hands on that trophy. Once I get that medal round my neck I think there will be a huge sigh of relief. It will prove that the risks I've taken have paid off."
Docherty watched from afar as Rangers cruised their way to the Premiership title and he admits that he would have struggled last year with it.
But he feels cutting ties with the club on a permanent basis has allowed him to return to being a supporter and he's delighted for his old pals.
He added: "Maybe if you'd asked me that last summer I'd have probably thought yes, it would be hard to see the team celebrating without me.
"But as the season went on down here, I had my own thing to concentrate on and it almost became like I was a supporter again. I was always backing them to do well.
"When you are at the club and not feeling part of it, there's always that wee bit of frustration.
"But being completely away from it with my own goals to focus on, it actually spurred me on because I had my own league to win.
"To be honest I was delighted for the boys back up at Ibrox. I know the tough times a lot of them have been through, particularly some of the staff who have been there through the long haul back to the top.
"It's nice that those guys have something to celebrate now."
