Gary Cahill was not interested in joining a Premier League relegation battle - with Norwich City one of the clubs keen on his services in the summer transfer window.

Cahill rejected another one year option at Crystal Palace but had other top flight suitors, including the Canaries, before opting to drop down to the Championship at Bournemouth.

Norwich did hold discussions with Cahill's representatives, prior to eventually signing Schalke's Turkish international Ozan Kabak to add competition at centre back in Daniel Farke's squad.

Former Chelsea and England defender Cahill was believed to be keen to stay close to his family in the south, but that was only one of the factors in his final decision.

"I could've stayed in the Premier League - Palace offered me another year," he said, speaking on the latest Sky Sports EFL podcast. "They needed to lower the age of the squad, so that didn't work out, but it was fantastic there.

"It's a great football club and I enjoyed my two years, but I had other opportunities as well to stay in the league.

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"This isn't me being disrespectful, but the teams that I would have gone to, I would maybe have been losing more games than winning.

"Speaking from my own point of view, am I going to add to my appearances or am I going to have a different challenge and come to a club that, again, is changing and, ultimately, challenge for promotion?

"There are all those sorts of things in your head. When you get to the stage of my career, the time of winning the Premier League - which I have done in the past - is gone. What drives you? What do you want to achieve? What do you want to come in every day for?

"That (promotion) was the drive and that's what I want to do this season. I know it's going to be tough; it's not going to be easy, for sure. But that's the goal at the end of everything.

"The promotion will be tough. It's a very young squad and in these times you need quality, youth, a bit of experience, the rub of the green and all the things to go for you. I'm just excited to get going.

"I took quite a bit of time in the summer because of that reason - I was unsure what I wanted to do in terms of my future."

Linking up with Scott Parker was another pull factor.

"I played with the manager. I spoke to him many times over the summer, so I was aware that this was an option early on," he said. "He was a big pull, obviously. Knowing him, knowing what he stands for and the way that he was as a player I presumed that would translate into management.

"He wants to win and he's very hungry and that's what I bought into in terms of the squad in general, which has been the case since I've been here."