I’D LET IT LIE WHEN PREST TO GIVE AN ANSWER ON MOVE BACK TO ENGLAND

GRAHAM BURKE admits he lied to family and friends about his move to Preston from Shamrock Rovers.

The former Aston Villa youth made his international breakthrough on the back of his performances for the Hoops. His Irish debut came off the bench away to France in May and he scored on his first start at home to the USA days later (above).

In the aftermath, Burke moved to Championship club Preston for a fee of €350,000. But the deal was done long before that.

“I knew about it before the Ireland thing,” he revealed. “It was just something I wanted to keep to myself. I don’t know how they got word about it but it was all in the papers, so people were talking about it.

“I had family members asking me about it but I was basically lying to their faces, saying, ‘Don’t believe everything you read in the papers, it’s not true’.

“I was telling people I hadn’t signed, but I actually did sign.

“I was just trying to keep it to myself because I still had three or four games to play for Rovers.

“The last thing I wanted was to play for Rovers and if I didn’t have a good game they’d say, ‘He’s not trying because he’s leaving’.

“Then we got it done and I was thrilled about it. People were coming up to me saying, ‘You liar’, but that was just something I had to do.”