Scott Sinclair has accused former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini of toying with his career.
Prior to his sacking from City, Mancini took the blame in early May for winger Sinclair's lack of action following his £6.2million arrival from Swansea last summer.
Sinclair last started a Barclays Premier League game last September, following which he managed just 70 minutes of top-flight football for the club after being relegated to the bench.
Even before Manuel Pellegrini's arrival, Sinclair decided he had to leave the Etihad Stadium to discover the joy of playing regularly again, leading to the 24-year-old signing on a season-long loan deal with West Brom last week.
"It gets to the stage when you get a bit older and you see politics in football, which no-one (on the outside) sees," said Sinclair
"It's things like that, in the backroom, when he (Mancini) said he didn't give me a chance, which he didn't.
"I even asked him 'Why did you bring me in if you're not going to give me a chance? You've given me no game time to show what I'm about', and he couldn't really answer the question.
"As a player, if you're not getting a chance to play then you are going to see the manager and ask him what is needed. So I did see him a few times, and we had our differences, but that's football.
"Not being given an opportunity to play was frustrating, but that was the choice I made, I never kicked up a fuss. All I could do was put my head down and train every day."
It is the second time in Sinclair's career he has spent time at a big club, only to be starved of opportunities, as was initially the case at Chelsea from where he went on loan to six lower league sides prior to joining Swansea.
Source: PA
