Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal has taken aim at former coach Jose Mourinho.
Carvajal seemed ready to make the step into the senior side at Madrid in 2012 after impressing at their reserves the previous two seasons, but Mourinho decided different and sanctioned the right-back's exit to Bayer Leverkusen instead.
The Spain international - who misses Euro 2016 due to injury - returned to the Bernabeu after just one season as Madrid exercised their buy-back option, but Carvajal has not forgotten about the lack of faith shown in him by Mourinho.
"I felt that I was perfectly ready to play for the first team, but hey, the coach, Mourinho in this case, did not count on me," Carvajal told Marca.
"Mourinho was a bit opportunistic. When I returned, he said that I needed the year elsewhere for my development. But had I not done well at Leverkusen, he would have said that I was not good enough for Madrid. I was a good player if I succeeded [at Leverkusen], but a bad one if I did not do well.
"I preferred the step to another league in Europe over staying with Castilla in the second division. I left Madrid with the clear plan to return. And that's the way it went.
"I returned to Madrid in a different situation. There's a difference between coming into the team as a youth player from Castilla or doing so after a successful spell elsewhere and having a certain status."
Carvajal, 24, has made over 100 appearances for Madrid in all competitions since his return, winning two Champions League trophies in the process.
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