Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has slammed the Newcastle Knights for their handling of a failed mid-season transfer involving winger Dominic Young.
In his Round 11 media availability, Robinson revealed that the negotiations have caused disruption for both the player and the club.
MORE: Trade smarter with eToro, the world's leading social investing platform
"You threw a guy’s life upside down for a week and you put another club in, but just do it in the right way," he said.
Further adding to Robinson's frustrations was that the Knights supposedly initiated the talks before shutting them down.
"We had not one discussion about letting Dom go. That wasn’t a discussion at all," he said.
"Newcastle rang us and obviously having talked to his manager beforehand when he got dropped to try and get him out… we said yes and then they wanted us to pay the whole year.
"The way it was sort of put out there was as if we were trying to push him out which wasn’t the case.
"That’s been fairly annoying."
Robinson claimed that the original agreement was made in good faith, with assurances from the Knights that they could absorb Young's contract.
"If you want him, their chairman said that they had enough money to take him now and so we agreed," he said.
"His management wanted that and then they backtracked at the end of the week and today.
"I think they’re trying to bluff us.
"If you ask for something, you’ve prepared it, then you stick by it… they haven’t done that."
Caught in the middle of the back-and-forth is Dom Young himself, who Robinson insists has handled the situation with professionalism and class.
"Dom hasn’t done anything wrong in all of this. It’s been an annoying week," he said.
"It’s sort of thrown Dom in a spin and us all this week when it wasn’t our doing."
As things stand, Young is remaining in the Eastern Suburbs for the foreseeable future.
"They want us to release him and pay money for it when we weren’t even thinking about releasing him. In what world does that happen? You asked, you said you had room in your cap, so get it sorted," said Robinson.