Transfer-listed Leeds midfielder Bradley Johnson has hit back at club chairman Ken Bates.
Midfielder feels he is being singled out
Transfer-listed Leeds midfielder Bradley Johnson has hit back at Ken Bates after being told he should show more respect to the Elland Road club.
Johnson seems certain to leave the West Yorkshire club in the January transfer window after failing to agree new terms.
With his current contract due to expire in the summer, an increasingly bitter war of words developing and sections of the Whites' support turning on the player, it would appear a reconciliation for the former Northampton player is unlikely.
Chairman Bates was angered by the 23-year-old's failure to attend an arranged meeting with chief executive Shaun Harvey as he was picking his parents up from the train station.
Agent
But Johnson told the
Yorkshire Evening Post: "I was called two hours prior to the meeting (with Harvey).
"I'd made plans, my parents were coming up from London, the snow was bad in Leeds and I had to pick them up from the (train) station. I said 'sorry I can't make it'.
"But then again, I don't feel that I should be going into meetings with the chairman or the manager or the chief executive. That's what I've got an agent for and that's what every player has an agent for.
"I didn't feel that I had to see them by myself. My agents have been up here three times to see whoever they saw, but now (the club) are trying to get me on my own."
Breakdowns
Johnson also feels it is unfair that the debate over his future is being carried out in the public domain when several other players have not been treated in the same way.
He added: "Like I've already said, I'm asking for equality.
"Being greedy is asking for more than what other players are on and I'm not asking for that, in no way, shape or form. I feel I've been targeted.
"There've been breakdowns in contract (talks) with other players but I'm the only one being put in the public eye and being transfer-listed."
