James McFadden admits he regrets leaving Everton.

The Scotland international left the Blues to join Birmingham City in January 2008 - before eventually returning to Everton for a brief spell in 2011.

He told the official Everton podcast: "It was just to go and play regularly. I'd been at the club for four-and-a-half years and I think it was...I wouldn't say it was the right time because I probably should have held on a bit longer, but I was getting frustrated at not playing.

"I was doing well for Scotland, every time I went away I seemed to do well and when I came back the manager [David Moyes] in his typical fashion would have something to say to me about even my performances for Scotland!

"If I had come back and done well, he'd tell me what I didn't do so well. At that point I didn't really get it, I didn't understand why he had to be so hard on me.

"In hindsight, I should have held on and stayed a bit longer. I was starting to mature and learn the game the way the manager wanted me to play it. It was just a bit of frustration that I wasn't playing regularly.

"I got the chance to work with Alex McLeish who I'd done so well for at Scotland. He had a different way of dealing with me that I felt I responded better to.

"I just had to move, it was quite hard training every day and doing well, and coming to the weekend and not playing - or playing ten or 20 minutes, with the manger telling me I had to build trust again.

"I felt at that time, it was time to move on. In hindsight I should have stayed, stuck it out - because I feel like I was starting to get into a way of playing the manager wanted me to play."