St Johnstone boss Steve Lomas has hit back in the Richie Brittain row by insisting the Perth club are by no means the villains of the piece.
The Ross County captain has had a major change of heart since agreeing a two-year pre-contract deal with Saints in January and has asked the Perth club to rip up the contract, citing personal reasons behind his decision.
But, speaking after the 2-2 draw between the sides, Lomas revealed he has been left incensed by comments emanating from the Highland club which suggest Saints have been in the wrong and should do the right thing by binning the deal.
“What I have been disappointed with, I’ve got to say, is the way St Johnstone have been made to look like bad guys here,” he commented.
“All we’ve done is offer a guy a two-year deal six months before his contract ends.
“I hear Derek Adams’ comments and I haven’t really said much, but I’ve got to say they are pretty hypocritical considering that Richie was desperate to leave in January.
“We tried to get it done and Derek wanted £50,000 so for him to turn round and say he would just rip up the contract, my question to him is: ‘Why didn’t he do it in January?’
“I’m still hopeful he’ll be here next season, I’ll have to speak to the chairman and take it from there. But it does rankle me a little bit that we’ve been made out to be the bad guys.
“I think the timing as well has been pretty poor. I took the option that I wouldn’t speak to Richard out of respect to Ross County, but I don’t think they’ve shown the same respect to St Johnstone this week.”
Lomas revealed he felt now is not the “right time” to speak to the midfielder but suggested the reasons behind Brittain’s apparent U-turn are not what they seem.
“I’ll reiterate, we St Johnstone as a club haven’t done anything wrong and there’s been a lot of noise coming out of Ross County,” he said.
“The truth of the matter probably is, at the time we offered a contract Ross County weren’t even offering one-year deals, they’ve done better than expected to get in the top six, obviously the finances are in a lot healthier position and they’ve offered Richard a two-year deal on more money than we’ve offered.
“If that’s the case, I’ve always been a firm believer that you should play with a straight bat, so come out and tell the truth. Don’t make up things about this and that, and about family.
“I’ve got every sympathy being away from my kids I understand but let’s have it right, it’s a two hour drive up the A9. In January I was told that Richard would have ran down the A9.
“Words like integrity were getting bandied about but I was like: ‘What have we done wrong?’ We’ve given someone a two-year deal when there are very few two-year deals about.
“It just seems to be that the goalposts have moved for Ross County as a club and I imagine they’ve been getting into him and saying: ‘Listen, why don’t you stay up here and we’ll give you more money?”
Lomas also confirmed he has not yet spoken to County boss Derek Adams about the matter.
“There’s nothing really to say,” he added. “Derek goes on record saying he doesn’t want to speak about it, then he spoke about it, which I find bizarre.
“I’m disappointed but that’s football. We get on and we shake hands.”
Adams insisted that any talk of his club offering Brittain a new deal “must be in Steve Lomas’s head”.
He said: “I don’t know where Steve is coming from that we have offered him a new contract. I don’t know why we would do that if he has signed a pre-contract with St Johnstone.
“If Richard Brittain came to us and said he was going to look to get out of the contract we wouldn’t be able to do anything until anything happens. All we are doing is supporting our player at Ross County FC to the best of our ability.
“There is no tug-o-war. Richie has just said he doesn’t want to come to St Johnstone and sometimes you just make a mistake.
“He was offered a contract by them and it is a difficult situation for them, I understand that, but if I was the manager then I wouldn’t be too pleased to hear a player signed a pre-contract and then ripped it up.”