Hunt: 'I wanted Everton move'

Stephen Hunt has admitted his disappointment after missing out on a deadline-day move to Everton.

The Reading winger, currently on international duty with the the Irish team, was the subject of a bid from the Merseyside club last night.

However, with the Toffees unable to come up with the £5m up front which would have activated a get-out clause in his contract, the deadline passed without any deal being struck.

Hunt was disappointed the Royals had not been more flexible in return for the service he has given them over the past three years.

He said: “I spoke to the manager (Steve Coppell), the director of football (Nick Hammond), the coaches. They were asking if I wanted to leave, and they knew my stance.

“I haven’t been a bad apple in the club over the last two or three years.

“I could have been, but I wasn’t. I have been ultra-professional and probably deserve a little bit better from them.

“But then again, I understand where they are coming from. They wanted to keep hold of me. But to further my career, that would have been a good move.”

Hunt was not the only Reading player in demand as the summer window close, with striker Kevin Doyle also understood to have attracted further attention from Tottenham as the Dimitar Berbatov saga finally drew to a close.

Doyle, like his international and club team-mate, has not been agitating publicly to leave the Madejski Stadium, and Hunt admitted the pair of them might have got their wish had they been less professional.

He said: “Kevin has acted the same way as me. We have been professional enough.

“At the dinner table today, we had the same conversation with a couple of players who said if they had been a bad apple, then they would have got out.

“Berbatov – I know it is a different scale and a lot of money, but at the same time, it is our careers as well.

“It’s frustrating. I am disappointed, but I am ready to go and re-focus on doing what I want to do in my career.

“I suppose you could say I am a little bit wounded and a little bit disappointed, so that will re-focus me into doing well.

“Listen, if a club wanted me that badly, they would have paid the £5million, so I mustn’t have been doing that well.

“But at the same time, I have done myself justice in the Premier League when I have played, and I am determined to get back up there, with Reading or without Reading.”