Former Real Madrid coach
Carlos Queiroz says he was misled by the club and should have quit his post in January after they failed to honour their pledge to strengthen the squad.
Queiroz, who was sacked last week and replaced by former player Jose
Antonio Camacho, said that the club would not have ended the season empty-handed if president Florentino Perez had not decided to offload several key players at the start of the campaign.
"I made my biggest mistake in January," Queiroz told Spanish sports daily Marca on Wednesday.
"I should have left when we were leading the league and doing well in the Cup and the Champions League. Maybe if I had gone then Real might not have ended the season as they did."
Real, who at one stage enjoyed an eight-point lead at the top of the table, finished fourth in the Primera Liga after losing their last five matches.
Queiroz said that the club's decision to reject the signing of Argentine defender Gabriel Milito and allow players of the calibre of
Fernando Morientes and
Claude Makelele to leave at the beginning of the season had taken its toll on the team.
"I asked that Morientes be allowed to stay and I am convinced that with him in the squad alongside Geremi, Makelele and Milito then Real would have ended up with one or two trophies."
Asked if he felt as though he had been deceived by the club,
Queiroz replied:
"If you were promised a car with air conditioning, four wheels, leather seats and metallic paint and you were then given one without any of that how would you feel?"
The former Manchester United assistant rejected claims by the Real president that he lacked sufficient authority to run the team and said that the proof was that the club had not only changed the coach but also its recruitment policy by signing Argentine defender
Walter Samuel last month.
Samuel was the first defender to be hired by Perez since he took over as president four years ago.
"I don't want to lower myself to the same level as others who have not shown me any respect," said
Queiroz.
"In sporting terms things didn't go well but that doesn't mean we should lack courtesy or elegance. I am not going to do that because I don't want to confuse Real Madrid with the president of the club."
Queiroz said that neither he nor sporting director Jorge Valdano, who stepped down from his post last week, had enjoyed any significant decision-making powers at the club.
But
Queiroz added that if Real could learn from the mistakes of this season they would make a rapid return to winning ways.
"With the situation becoming so clear and if the same errors are not made again Real will improve and I'm sure Camacho will be happy," he said.