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Tony Pulis has launched a scathing attack on Martin Braithwaite in the wake of the striker's comments in the Danish press this week, slamming the forward for "disrespecting" Steve Gibson and the football club.

Braithwaite this week told the Danish press he doesn't expect to return to Boro in the summer after his loan at Leganes expires and also criticised Pulis's "strange" tactics.

Pulis insists he's not bothered what the player has to say about him or his playing style - but described Braithwaite as an "ungrateful person" and said, while not surprised with the player's decision to speak out, he still found the comments "astonishing".

Pulis also revealed that at the end of last summer, Braithwaite steamed into Neil Bausor's office "shouting and screaming" and demanding a move when he learnt of interest from Spain.

A little over a day earlier, Pulis says Braithwaite had committed himself to the club and vowed to stay for the entire season. Braithwaite didn't get the move he desired in the summer but his form then nosedived, and despite insisting he was focused on Boro, come January he made it clear he wanted to leave the club when Leganes again came calling.

The Denmark international this week revealed that he doesn't expect to stay at Leganes in the summer because he doesn't think the La Liga club can afford him. But he made it clear that he doesn't want to return to Boro, which prompted Pulis's furious reaction in his press conference at Rockliffe on Friday morning.

Pulis said: "The biggest disappointment for me is he's the highest paid player I've ever worked with in the Championship.

"As a matter of fact, the last club I worked at, which was a Premier League club, he'd be in the top five earners at the club without a question of a doubt.

"Steve Gibson bent over backwards, backwards, to give that lad everything he wanted to bring him to this club.

"To show the disrespect he's shown to this club by saying he's not coming back, to Steve Gibson, who's made him a multi millionaire, let's make no bones about it, the wages and what he's earning are astonishing.

"For him to show Steve Gibson that disrespect, and the supporters and his fellow players, it's just amazing.

"I've dealt with players all my life, some can make your hair curl - not mine. But for him to come out and say that, it just puts him up there as such an ungrateful person.

"For a person who said twice he didn't want to go, he wanted to stay and help the club get promoted, then within 36 hours when he knew the club from Spain was in for him, then he wanted to go."

(Image: Getty Images)

Asked whether he was surprised by Braithwaite's decision to speak to the press, Pulis replied: "No. You never get surprised what players say, especially after they've left.

"The surprise and disappointment, if he wanted to have a pop at me personally, that's fine. I've had loads of players have a pop at me over the years and you accept that.

"But to show total disrespect for Steve, who is a wonderful chairman and man and has spent an absolutely fortunate. I'll reiterate it, he's made him and his family millionairess."That total disrespect is a poor showing.

"What he's come out with is astonishing.

"It's disappointing but it doesn't surprise me because on two other occasions he said things that were so far off what he was really thinking.

"You don't say I'm going to stay and see it through and I'm going to do this and that and help them get promoted, then 36 hours later go bounding into the chief executive and say I've got to leave, I've got to go.

"I can't explain it because I'm not that way. Braithwaite's that way. We're all different.

"My biggest disappointment is the way he's treated Steve, the club and the area. The supporters pay the money and he's washed that away. He's not shown any respect for what this club has given him.

"He's just completely and utterly pushed it away."

The ironic thing about Braithwaite's comments about Pulis's tactics is the fact the forward was playing his best football for Boro at the start of this season under the Welshman's watch.

That was put to Pulis, who said: "He's got his reasons. By saying things about me, if I'm still here (in the summer, he'll be thinking) I'll be saying I don't want him back. You don't have to be too clever to work it out."

Braithwaite left the club on loan shortly after Pulis's appointment last winter and was expected to leave permanently in the summer but didn't get his move.

At the start of this season, the former Toulouse man was in blistering form - but that was when the summer transfer window was open. Shortly before the summer deadline, he made it clear he wanted to go but Boro stood firm. It was after that that the forward lost form and despite the best efforts of Pulis, never looked like getting back to his best.

It came as no surprise, then, that he got the move he craved in January when Leganes returned. He clearly doesn't want to come back to Boro in the summer but he'll still have two years left to run on his contract.

"I'm the manager and you have to take this from players at times, Garry Monk is a manager and he has to take what the fella said about projects and stuff," said Pulis.

"He is someone who has taken so much out of this football club, and given so little back. For him to talk the way he’s talked, it’s really disappointing. But I’ve been in football a long time, and you come across these players now and then. You have to deal with it, but you’re talking about a person who on two occasions has come out and said he’s got his heart and soul in this football club, and then within 36 hours, he’s going in and seeing the chief executive and asking him to leave. That just shows what Martin is all about.

“It doesn’t upset me, I’ve been in the game too long. People can throw stones at me, but my great thing is the football club. The contract that Steve has given him and the money Steve has put forward, he’s made the lad a multi-millionaire. For the lad not to show any respect towards Steve, who is an owner of a football club who was desperate to back his manager at the time, is wrong.

"Steve gave everything that the kid wanted, and it just shows a total of lack of respect. Not to me, I’m just the manager of the football club, but to the owner, who spent his money, and the supporters, who spent their money to watch these players.

"Sometimes, they just have to think before they say things. It’s regrettable that he’s even mentioned it. I’d be keeping my head down and just getting on with life in Spain, where he is."