SAINTS have been blasted as childish and disrespectful by Coventry boss Chris Coleman, after pulling out of a deal for Elliott Ward at the last minute.
As revealed in yesterday’s Daily Echo, the centre back had said his goodbyes at the Ricoh Arena and was waiting to join up with his new teammates when he was told the move was off late on Tuesday.
Executive chairman Nicola Cortese decided to pull the plug on the transfer at the eleventh hour, leaving Ward “gutted” according to sources, and the club mystified and angry.
Coleman was furious Saints had pulled out so late in the day and revealed he and the player were left “scratching their heads” as to what went wrong.
He angrily rejected suggestions that negotiations between the two clubs had hit a snag.
Speaking to the Coventry Evening Telegraph, Coleman said: “That’s complete nonsense.
“It was no fault of ours or Elliott’s, it’s solely down to Southampton, who have acted really poorly.
“We’ve behaved like we always do – our chairman (Ray Ranson) is always very respectful and we’ve never had any problems.
“If they decided that they didn’t want to do the deal they should have come out and said ‘we’re going to go elsewhere.’ “To come out with excuses is childish and we’ve all been round the block enough times to know that it’s nonsense."
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