Kyle Lafferty insists he was shown the door by Kilmarnock despite pledging to stay and be part of their Championship campaign next season.
The Northern Irishman rejected the claim he knocked back a new deal from the relegated Ayrshire club and accused the Rugby Park board of using the players as scapegoats for the disaster of taking the drop after losing their Premiership play-off against Dundee.
Lafferty returned from Northern Ireland’s friendly against Ukraine to discover he’d been listed alongside Kirk Broadfoot and fellow forwards Greg Kiltie and Mitch Pinnock in a batch of players leaving the club this summer.
But the 33-year-old former Rangers striker, who scored 13 goals in 13 appearances across the league and Scottish Cup, accused Killie of not engaging in talks over a new deal.
He said: “I was with the Northern Ireland squad in Ukraine when I read that I’d decided to move on from Kilmarnock, it was extremely disappointing. It just isn’t true that I’ve walked away, the opposite is true. I loved the time I had there and wanted to stay.
“My aim was to be a part of the bid to bounce straight back to the Premiership next season but the club have announced that won’t be happening. The club spoke to my agent, he told them what I was looking for and I wasn’t asking for the earth or to give the boss Tommy Wright a heart attack.
“Contract talks are all about negotiation but there was none of that, we heard nothing, just an announcement on the official club website that I and several other players had decided to move on.
“It’s a disingenuous statement, the fans deserve to know what the situation is as it’s not right to have players thrown under the bus because of the relegation.
“My aim is stay at Killie and help the club come straight back from the Championship next season but the club have now said I’ve moved on. I’d like the Killie fans to know it’s not the case that I have rejected the chance to stay at the club. The truth is that I wanted to be part of the plans for next season.”
Lafferty was the only Killie player to confront furious fans in the aftermath of their Premiership play-off defeat to Dundee last month
He said: “We’ve let you all down, we weren’t good enough all season.
“There are boys who have been at the club ten years. The kit man is crying.
“That was one of the team talks this morning. We said we would do it for them - but obviously we couldn’t.”
Now the emotions have chilled with the reality of relegation setting despite director Phyllis McLeish promising there would be no reduction in Wright’s budget for next season
She said: “We have been looking down the barrel of a gun for more than a couple of weeks.
“We have been speaking about what’s going to happen, and we decided that whatever happened we are going to stick with the player budget, there won’t be a reduction.”
There have been 11 departures from the playing staff confirmed by the club, which included club captain Gary Dicker, Youssouf Mulumbu, Danny Rogers and Nicke Kabamba.
A contract offer to defender Ross Millen has also been withdrawn but Lafferty, who signed a short-term deal at Rugby Park in February following a stint in Italy with Reggina, believes those spending claims appear to be a smokescreen.
He said: “I don’t want to get into any slagging matches but I know that contracts were offered to individuals and given a few hours to make a decision. Take it or leave it. That’s not the right way to treat people. The terms on offer in certain cases were vastly reduced, I’m close to certain players and it’s an embarrassment.
“They may say the budget remains the same and I wish Killie nothing but the best but they can’t be allowed to play with the truth when issuing statements about decisions they’ve taken which don’t represent the reality of the situation.”
