Andros Townsend has claimed that he cried after a summer transfer to Burnley fell through.
The 32-year-old seemed ready to join Vincent Kompany’s side as a free agent in the summer window, having signed terms with the club following a good trial.
After missing the entire season last year due to an ACL injury, the winger trained with the Clarets in the summer and played in their pre-season games. Burnley, on the other hand, withdrew the offer because to fears that signing Townsend would impede the development of promising summer recruits Luca Koleosho, 22, and Zeki Amdouni, 19.
And Townsend confessed it was difficult to hear he would not be joining Burnley.
‘If I was bad and knew I wasn’t going to get a contract I could prepare myself,’ he told BBC Radio 5’s Monday Night Club.
‘But to be looking at houses, looking at schools, talking about squad numbers and then to be told the contract is no longer on offer, it rocked my world.
‘I argued my point, put my case forward.
‘That I offer something different, that I’m comfortable being a squad player and good around the squad even when not playing.’
The former Spurs and Crystal Palace player, however, admitted he understood why Kompany decided against signing him.
‘Burnley are a club that like sellable assets, so begrudgingly I understand why he [Kompany] made that decision not to block their pathway by signing a 32-year-old,’ he said.
Townsend, who remains a free agent after leaving Everton at the end of last season, added he was on the verge of signing for a Turkish club on deadline day but the move never materialised.
‘I was in Turkey the whole of deadline day,’ he explained.
The 32-year-old trained with the Clarets over the summer and featured in pre-season games
‘An agent said: “100 percent I’ve got this deal”.
‘I waited the whole of deadline day and it didn’t happen. That’s been my month, people giving me false hope.’
Links with a third division club in Saudi Arabia proved similarly fruitless.
‘A random agent said he had this club in the third division of Saudi Arabia and the president was desperate to sign me,’ Townsend said.
‘After sleeping on it I got excited about playing football again
‘So I contacted him the next morning, which was Saudi deadline day, and he said he would arrange a meeting.
‘I eventually got word from the president that he wasn’t bringing in any players, and the deadline passed.’
Townsend last appeared in Premier League action in March of last year, when he suffered an ACL injury while playing for Everton in the FA Cup versus Palace.
He played 45 minutes for the Toffees Under-21 team in May, but he left Goodison Park at the end of last season when his contract expired.
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