Al decided to leave the Gunners and return to his native Glasgow - a move most people saw as a surprise, though for Warriors fans welcome, move.
"I spoke to Sean Lineen [the Warriors' new head coach] and he's very ambitious for Glasgow," explained Al in the Herald. "He wants to bring in quality players, while there are some very good players there already. It's been an under-achieving squad for whatever reason, but I'm excited to be going home and, hopefully, we'll do a lot better next season.
"We spoke about it and Sean was very positive about the names he was telling me. Some of those he mentioned have signed, so it looks like we could do really well."
While Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, has not yet confirmed anything since he announced that one pro team may have to be axed, the fact that Glasgow have signed Andy Newman, Thom Evans, Sean Marsden and Francisco Leonelli – a clubmate of Al at Gunners over the past year – is encouraging.
In any event, the boy from Bishopbriggs, who first learned his rugby at the Allan Glen's club, felt it was a risk worth taking. "I didn't have any more information than the rest of the players," said Al. "It's obviously up in the air for everybody. Everyone is in danger.
"It's not as if Edinburgh couldn't be moved to somewhere else, so I just pretty much made my own decision. I spoke to Frank Hadden, Todd Blackadder and Sean a lot. We took our time making the decision to make sure I was happy with it.
"I am fairly confident there will be three pro teams next season, but that's only based on the information everyone has got. I didn't get a chance to speak to anyone else and wasn't assured about anything.
"There will obviously be developments over the summer but I am essentially an SRU contracted player. My contract is safe, so I suppose if the worst was to happen I've still got that, although I have bought a house in the West End of Glasgow.
"Outside rugby, it is also a great move. I have loved my time at Edinburgh but I've got a lot of family and friends in Glasgow, my girlfriend works in Glasgow and I do get absolutely caned by the Edinburgh boys for sounding Glaswegian.
"It's not like I'm making a move to somewhere I'm not familiar with."
You can read the Herald article here