Saido Berahino's West Bromwich Albion future remains in limbo after his apparent strike threat following the club rejecting two deadline-day bids from Tottenham Hotspur.
The striker has hinted on his Twitter account he is prepared to quit the team after West Brom rebuffed two late offers from Spurs.
His message read: “Sad how i cant say exactly how the club has treated me but i can officially say i will never play Jeremy Peace.”
Peace, West Brom’s chairman, rejected four bids from Spurs for the England Under 21 forward and turned down the transfer request from Berahino, 22, last month.
He held talks with Berahino last week and reiterated he would not allow the player to leave, and then issued a statement following the end of the transfer window on Tuesday insisting West Brom needed to move on.
“We have a key player who has been very unsettled by antics which were designed to get him out of our club cheaply,” Peace said.
“Those tactics have continued despite my making our position clear in my first conversation with Daniel Levy on this subject in mid-August.
“I said selling Saido so late in the window was not on our agenda.
“Tottenham’s offers failed substantially to reflect Saido’s true value while the timing made no allowance for our own recruitment of a suitable replacement for a proven Premier League goalscorer.
“Saido has been unsettled to the point where our head coach has not felt able to select him for our last three games.
“We are now left with the task of repairing the damage created by this unfortunate episode.”
It is believed Tottenham’s bids Tuesday were only marginally better than the North London club’s second offer, made last month, which would have risen to £21 million (Dh118m) with clauses and add-ons.
West Brom are unhappy with Spurs’ approach to the deal, which only strengthened their resolve to keep Berahino.
The forward has been left out of West Brom’s last three squads during the speculation, with manager Tony Pulis insisting he was not in the right state of mind to play.
Spurs were searching for more fire power to help Harry Kane and, despite signing Son Heung-min from Bayer Leverkusen, maintained their interest in Berahino.
He scored 20 goals last season and earned a call-up to the England senior squad, but missed this summer’s European U21 Championship with a knee injury.
West Brom confirmed they have committed £36m to transfers this summer after bringing in James McClean, James Chester, Rickie Lambert, Salomon Rondon, Jonny Evans and Anders Lindegaard, along with the season-long loan deal for Serge Gnabry.
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