Former Newcastle United manager John Carver has insisted that the decision to release Jonas Gutierrez at the end of his contract was made for footballing reasons.
The Argentine is suing the club for disability discrimination after claiming that they viewed him as a "liability" following his diagnosis of testicular cancer.
However, Carver, who was the manager during the closing months of Gutierrez's spell at St James' Park, insists that the board put no pressure on him to leave the 32-year-old out in order to prevent sparking a clause in his contract that would have guaranteed him a year's extension.
"My opinion was that Jonas should not be offered a new contract as there were better players available to take the club forward. It tugged on the heartstrings to be honest, but it was a footballing decision. I wanted to take the club forward," Carver told a tribunal in Birmingham.
"I am nobody's puppet. I wanted this job and was going to do it my way. I confirm that the board played no role whatsoever in my decisions regarding first-team selection. The board were not even made aware of my thoughts on team selection until a couple of hours before the match.
"If Jonas did have concerns that the club was treating him unfairly because of misconceptions it had about his cancer, I am very disappointed that he never raised this with me, and he had the opportunity to do so at the time. My mother passed away from cancer four years ago, and I was particularly sensitive to Jonas's situation."
Gutierrez currently plays for Deportivo La Coruna in Spain.
