Former Middlesbrough and Aston Villa striker Rudy Gestede opens up on Neil Warnock conversation

The 31-year-old striker saw his contract expire at the end of June but elected not to sign a short-term waiver to finish the campaign.

Gestede would have been available for Boro’s trip to Stoke before his deal expired but was told by new manager Neil Warnock he could leave early.

During an in-depth interview with TalkSport, Gestede opened up on his conversations with Warnock and the club, insisting there wasn’t a big confrontation.

When asked about Warnock, Gestede said: “To be fair, he was honest when he came. Before he came, I had a chat with Jonathan Woodgate and my speech was the same.

“I said: ‘Listen, I’m willing to stay if the club is willing to show that they want to take the risk with me’. It’s easy to ask the player to play for eight games, but I’m 31-years-old and out of contract, and if something happened to me like the injury I had in the past, who is going to give me a contract after that? So, I’ve been straight and honest with them.

“I spoke to the CEO Neil Bausor and he said, ‘we cannot give you this for many reasons’. I don’t want to go into the details, but at the end of the day, I said: ‘Listen, if you don’t take the risk, I don’t take the risk’.

Gestede started Boro’s final game before Woodgate was dismissed as head coach, a 3-0 defeat by Swansea, but says that didn’t change the situation.

“Woodgate got sacked and Warnock came. He put me in his office straight away and said, ‘what do you want to do?’, and I said the same thing.

“He said: ‘I’ve just come,I cannot push for you. You’re the type of player I like. If you stay, you will play. Obviously with me, I want you to be my striker for the next few games, so it’s up to you now’.

“I said: ‘I’m sure I will enjoy my time with you but there’s some other conditions I need to take on’. He said: ‘I cannot push now to make you stay; I’ve just come in the club, so it’s your choice.’

“I said: ‘My choice is the same, so thank you very much and I wish you all the best’, and he wished me all the best on my side and we shook hands and I left and he went his way.

“We didn’t have any confrontation or he didn’t say he didn’t want me if I wasn’t willing to play. We just had an adult chat and there was an explanation and everybody was happy with it.”

Gestede’s exit brought to an end his frustrating three and a half years with the Teessiders in which he scored just six goals in 71 appearances.

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