‘I left club out of respect for club chairman’
LEE Peltier says he terminated his contract at Huddersfield Town because of the respect that he had for club chairman Dean Hoyle.
The 34-year-old had previously spent two seasons at Huddersfield, before going onto play for Leicester City and Leeds United respectively.
He returned to the John Smith’s Stadium in 2014 but faced a spell on the sidelines during the early stages of his second spell.
Chris Powell had replaced Mark Robins in the dugout by the time Peltier returned to the squad, and Tommy Smith was impressing in the first team in his position.
As a result, the defender decided to end his contract with the Terriers because he was unwilling to play a bit-part role, and also didn’t want to be disrespectful towards the club and Hoyle.
Peltier said: “I was still injured at the time and he was playing a young boy called Tommy Smith. He did really well. It was a little bit similar to Leeds and Sam Byram. A young lad coming through the academy and he was playing really well.
“So I wasn’t playing and that’s never happened to me in my career. I’ve always played, and I sat with Chris Powell, and he said, ‘the boy is doing really well at the moment’. I said well that’s fine but I didn’t want to sit around and he would’ve probably played all the season with no injuries as the young boys do.
“I wasn’t prepared to just sit around and take money. I wanted to go and play, and out of respect for Dean Hoyle, I called him myself and said, ‘I’m not sitting here, taking this money from you and not playing’.
“The way the manager wants to go with the young lads, that’s fine by me but just release me from my contract. We came to an agreement and cancelled the contract.”