I couldn't turn Carlisle United down, says Dundalk's Archie Davies

The Dundalk defender, after signing a two-year deal with the Blues, said United's interest was too good to refuse.

Davies, 25, admitted it was not easy to leave the League of Ireland club where he had impressed since January 2023.

But the former Brighton, Crawley and Aldershot man said joining United fulfilled a wish to return to the English league.

“It was obviously a tough decision,” said Davies, speaking on Dundalk's website after becoming United's seventh summer signing.

“It’s something I couldn’t really turn down and I hope people understand that. 

Archie Davies has signed a two-year deal at United (Image: PA)

“I’ve always said that I wanted to go back and play in the English Football League at some stage and, luckily enough, I’ve built myself a good enough platform at Dundalk for teams to be interested.

"When the opportunity at Carlisle came up, I would have been silly to turn it down.”

Davies said he had rebuilt his "confidence and self-belief" at Dundalk having previous felt "in the middle of nowhere".

"To get that back, get a smile on my face, and enjoy playing football again was my number one aim, and I achieved it almost immediately," said the Sussex-born player.

He paid tribute to his former team-mates and colleagues at Dundalk while the club's manager Jon Daly, the former Dundee United, Rangers, Stockport County and Hartlepool United forward, said: "Archie has been one of the best defenders in the league over the past two seasons and we are obviously very disappointed to see him go, especially when we have only 13 games to go, but he felt this opportunity to go back to England might not come up at the end of our season.

“When a player says he wants to go, you have to start planning for life without them.

"The club have got a fee from him and it’s our job now to go and find somebody who can become the next Archie Davies and I’m confident we can do that.”