That’s Rich
And in calmly expressed but hard-hitting comments yesterday, he laid a large part of the blame for his departure at the door of chief executive Garry Cook. Remarkably, the Irish international has also said that he was told he had to be sold because City – often described as the richest club in world football – needed the money.
Dunne’s €6.8m move from Eastlands to Villa Park was finally confirmed yesterday, almost 24 hours after the official closure of the transfer window, and the Irish international has now claimed that the delay in completing the deal was due to a dispute about what he insists was a promised testimonial for him at the club.
Speaking yesterday before flying out to Larnaca with the rest of the national squad, Dunne explained: “A year ago when I signed my new contract, Garry Cook was in on those negotiations and I think for tax reasons you can’t put a testimonial in a contract. He promised me a testimonial, then three days ago turned around and said I wouldn’t be getting a testimonial, and that he’d never said that and I wouldn’t be entitled to one. It was a dispute over things like that.”
Asked if the situation had been resolved to his satisfaction, Dunne replied: “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 – doesn’t suit them any more they just put it in the bin and say ‘off you go’.”
With the player’s departure part of the fallout from the revolution at City since the club was taken over by the massively wealthy Abu Dhabi United Group, Dunne found some black humour in the official reasoning for shipping him out.
“They told me they had accepted an offer and I said: ‘Okay, but what happens if I stay and fight for my place?’ And they, funnily, (they) said: ‘We need the money.’
“So that was that, really.
“They told me they have a certain amount of money that they have to recoup each season to make things look better on the books. I could understand if I was getting sold for €200m – then it might make sense. But it was a bit strange really.”
Dunne also accused the club of a lack of transparency in their final dealings with him. It just needed people to be honest with me,” he said, “because there were a hell of a lot of things going on throughout the summer. 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 want to sell me – just don’t do it behind my back.”
Dunne said that the whole experience has taught him a lot about how the concept of loyalty doesn’t necessarily work both ways in football, even if it’s transferred players who generally feel the wrath of the fans they’ve left behind.
“Man City have just signed (Joleon) Lescott and he’s getting dog’s abuse for being disloyal 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,” said Dunne.
“It’s not me who has asked to leave, or wants to leave. I’d quite happily have stayed there and been part of the squad and fought for my place but that opportunity never arose.
“I just think it’s the way they’ve gone about it – instead of coming to me and saying ‘thanks very much, you’ve been here a long time but we’re going a different way and you can leave’.”
Dunne said that while Mark Hughes had told him he wanted him to stay at the club, the decision had effectively been taken out of the manager’s hands.
“The manager there is very quiet, he just does his own thing,” said Dunne. “I spoke with him a few times throughout the summer about what was 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. He said they were trying to sign certain players and you’ll be part of this squad and you can fight for your place. It’s up to everyone and you’re still the captain; last week he said to me he’d rather I stayed but he was told we needed to get the money in. I don’t think it was his decision.”
As far as Dunne is concerned, the man mostly to blame is Garry Cook, formerly a Nike executive in the US before taking up his current position at Eastlands, and someone with whom the player admits he had a difficult relationship.
“Garry Cook has come in and he doesn’t really understand football, all he wants is big-money players,” claimed Dunne. “He doesn’t understand the core loyalty of the club and where it begins. For him, I was probably a bit of a nuisance. I found out things that were going on behind my back and I wouldn’t speak to him. Every time I came around he probably felt a bit uncomfortable.
“I just feel really bad because I don’t want to sound really happy about leaving City – my only problem is the way they dealt with it. I have been honest enough and loyal enough with them; they should have been the same with me rather than doing stuff behind my back.”
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