Glenn Whelan has described his treatment by former club Hearts as 'amateurish' after he was frozen out by new manager Daniel Stendel.
The Republic of Ireland midfielder joined the Edinburgh side last summer on a free transfer, having been released by Aston Villa after helping the Birmingham club win promotion to the Premier League.
The 35-year-old signed a one-year deal and made 17 appearances in the first half of the season but on Monday it was announced that his contract had been cancelled by mutual consent.
Whelan told Independent.ie that he had had no communication with Hearts after being dropped over Christmas until receiving an email asking him to agree to leave last Monday.
"They call themselves a professional football club, but I never heard anything from anyone at Hearts," he said.
"On Monday night, I got an email from someone at the club with the contract details, asking me to sign so we could go our separate ways. I didn't ask for any money, I was happy to just go. But it was all very amateurish from their side.
"New managers can come in with new ideas, that’s football, but to be let down the way I was and be treated the way I was, with no one at Hearts having the decency to speak to me or give me a call, that’s disappointing.
"I do feel let down. The way my name is out there now it feels like I have been thrown under a bus. There are a lot of players at Hearts who have not been fit, I have tried my best with the quality that is around us and if that wasn't good enough, it was certainly not my fault."
The manager who signed Whelan, Craig Levein, was sacked in October and German Stendel took over in December.
Stendel selected the Dubliner in his first three games in charge of the Scottish Premiership's bottom side but left him out for the St Stephen's Day defeat to Hibernian and subsequently questioned the Irishman's leadership qualities.
"He wants to take the responsibility but I have seen only three games," said Stendel two weeks ago.
"Do you have the feeling he is a leader in this group? It's not Glenn's fault – but a real leader in the centre of the pitch? Sorry. Maybe I missed it."
Whelan added that he felt the manager had used him to try and stamp his authority on the team and had refused to even speak to him after dropping him from the training squad.
"Things were being said about me, that I didn't fancy it, I was laying down the tools. No way was that the case on my part. I don’t think he was watching the games if the manager felt like that.
"If you ask any Hearts fan who had seen our games, I'd like to think they’d say I was willing, trying. I played eight home games and got five man-of-the match awards," said the veteran midfielder.
"I can’t accept him coming out and questioning my leadership skills or saying I didn’t do the job, I did the job he asked."
Ninety-one cap international Whelan has been a consistent starter for Ireland under Mick McCarthy and will be anxious to find a new club ahead of the Euro 2020 play-off semi-final against Slovakia on 26 March.
