DESPITE HAVING spent over €200 million in pursuit of silverware, Manchester City told Richard Dunne that he was being sold for financial reasons, according to the Dubliner who was severely critical yesterday of the way the Eastlands outfit handled his departure for Aston Villa.

The Republic of Ireland international, who arrived in Nicosia with the rest of Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad last night, claimed he was sold despite suggesting that he would like to stay and fight for his place in Mark Hughes’s new-look side. Dunne added that the club’s executive chairman, Garry Cook – who last year hinted that Dunne would be unlikely to play a part in City’s long-term future when he remarked that the defender’s name would not “roll off the tongue in Beijing” – had undermined his position and pushed him towards the door while the manager was little more than a bystander.

“It just needed people to be honest with me,” he said. “But there were a hell of a lot of things going on throughout the summer and from the day after the Bulgaria game (in June) I was getting phone calls from people saying Garry Cook has been trying to sell me behind my back, two months after me going to him and saying if he has any problems to come and deal with me.

“I’m disappointed with people who say one thing and then completely do the other. I’m not a baby; I’m not going to cry just because the club wants to sell me; I don’t mind, just don’t do it behind my back. In the end, though, they told me they had accepted an offer. I said: ‘Okay, but what happens if I stay and fight for my place?’ They said, well, funnily said: ‘We need the money’, so that was that really.”

Expressions of support from Hughes did him little good with Dunne insisting that the Welshman seemed incapable of holding on to a player he had repeatedly said, both in public and private, he would prefer to keep.

“The manager there is very quiet, he just does his own thing,” said the 30-year-old. “I spoke with him a few times throughout the summer about what is going on and he was of the opinion that they needed two players for every position, and that was the way the squad was going to work this season.

“When we went to Africa was the last time I spoke to him and I found out some other stuff. I said: ‘Where do I lie in the whole thing?’ He said they were trying to sign certain players and I’d be part of this squad and could fight for my place. He told me that it was up to everyone and that I was still the captain. Then, last week, he said to me that he would rather I stayed but he had been told that we needed to get the money in. I don’t think it was his decision.”

Though Villa actively pursued his signature, Dunne’s departure for Birmingham was delayed by the wrangling that went on over money between the player and his employers. Various versions of what he was holding out for were leaked out but the Dubliner insists he was simply looking for Cook to make good on a promise he made when a new four-year contract was negotiated barely 12 months ago.

“A year ago when I signed my contract, Garry Cook was in on those negotiations. I think for tax reasons you can’t put a testimonial in a contract but he promised me a testimonial and then three days ago turned around and said I wouldn’t be getting it, that he’d never said it and I wouldn’t be entitled to one.”

The club’s position appears to be that they ended up giving the player a pay-off of around €750,000 and dropped their asking price to €5.5 million in order to facilitate Dunne’s departure, but the Dubliner clearly feels his loyalty to the club over nine years counted for nothing.

“In the end, he said, “it’s been resolved to Man City’s satisfaction. Man City are in control and they decide. I’d been loyal to them for a long time and it was their decision to cancel a four-year contract they gave me last season. They just more or less told me to go.

“To them, it seems to me, that my contract 12 months down the line, when it doesn’t suit them any more, they just put it in the bin and say: ‘Off you go’.”

“I could understand if I was getting sold for €200 million it might make sense, but it was a bit strange really. Man City have just signed Joleon Lescott and he’s getting dogs’ abuse for not being loyal and breaking a contract he just signed a year ago. But on the other hand Man City have just done the exact same to me.”