Why has Jeffrey returned to Irish League management?

It's a decision that has half left him "feeling like a child" with excitement, and half asking himself "what have I done?".

David Jeffrey will return to management with Irish Premiership club Portadown after three years out of the dugout.

The 63-year-old had superb success with Linfield, where he won 31 trophies in 17 years at Windsor Park.

One League Cup in seven years followed at Ballymena United, but he departed the Sky Blues in 2023.

In a big move from Portadown, he is also one of the biggest personalities in Irish League history.

Jeffrey admits he had offers to return to the sidelines before, so why does now make sense with Portadown?

• Portadown appoint Jeffrey as their new manager

For Jeffrey, there were a number of options at play.

The first one was the fact there was a club with a vacancy, something he described as a "strict condition", after the Ports parted company with Niall Currie with two games left in the season.

"I've been approached by several clubs at times who give me hypothetical situations to consider," Jeffrey told BBC Sport NI.

"But in my mind there always had to be a vacancy."

Something he says that was "equally as, if not more important", was the health of his partner, Rose, who had been battling breast cancer.

Jeffrey says she is "in a good place" at the moment, and was supportive of his proposed move to get back into management.

"That really occupied all of our thinking and nothing else was considered in any way, shape, or form," Jeffrey said, who stepped into media commitments when he left Ballymena.

"I never thought about going back because she was the total priority.

"The good news is we're in a good place now. Rose is as well as could be expected and as we would hope for, and we just thank God for that."

'If I didn't have the hunger, I wouldn't be back'

A giant of the Irish League in the 1990s and early 2000s under Ronnie McFall, Portadown have not had the success of years gone by.

The past decade has seen the club bounce between the Irish Premiership and Championship, but there has been recent stability with two seasons in the top flight under Currie, who was in his second spell at the club.