St Mirren's new signing Paul McGowan says he jumped at the chance to make a permanent move to the Buddies because he didn't want to spend his career on the Celtic bench, the Paisley Daily Express reports. McGowan was on loan at St Mirren last season after finding first-team opportunities difficult to come by at Parkhead. But a series of promising display in the black-and-white stripes was enough to make Danny Lennon look into bringing the striker back for the next campaign. Celtic agreed to rip-up the last year of McGowan's contract with them and the player signed his new two-year deal with St Mirren. Back at the club for pre-season training, McGowan said: âIt was a pretty easy decision to come back here because I enjoyed it so much last season. Itâs a challenge and one that Iâm looking forward to. Iâm excited because I feel that St Mirren is a great club with great facilities. Hopefully, we can do well in the season ahead. âSome people might look at it and say âwhy are you leaving Celtic?â but Iâm confident about what I can do here. âPlayers have left Celtic and Rangers before and some of them have made a great living out of doing so. âI think there is life after Celtic and itâs up to me to prove it.â McGowan had been on the Bhoys' books from the age of 16 and admits leaving was not an easy decision. But the lack of first-team action on offer made up his mind. He continued: âWhen you look at the amount of players Celtic have in their squad, some of them are not even making the bench. âI didnât want to come back from a season of playing at St Mirren and go back to that. âThatâs why I was delighted when the clubs agreed a deal that meant I could come back to Paisley. âIt was sad to leave Celtic because Iâd been there since I was very young and Iâve got great memories of my time there that Iâll never forget. When I was coming through as a youngster, it was my dream to play for Celtic and at least I can say I did that. "Hopefully, I can now make a good go of it here and play well for St Mirren.â