Tarkowski being ‘misguided’, says Brentford boss‏

Brentford head coach Dean Smith suggested James Tarkowski is being “misguided” by his representatives over a potential move to Burnley.

Tarkowski refused to play in Friday’s game against the Clarets after they had a £2.5m bid rejected for the centre-back earlier this week.

Burnley, who have also put in an offer for Bees winger Alan Judge, ran out comfortable 3-1 winners at Griffin Park.

And Smith said: ‘Things have happened that may have disrupted us a bit. The timings of the bids have not been great.

“James is a really good lad and it did surprise me. He came to my office before training on Thursday and told me that he did not want to play.

“I told him that I thought he was making a mistake and that he was misguided. Them I told him he had better go home.

“We have a valuation for our players and this is a transfer window, not the January sales, so if a club wants to buy a player then they have to meet our valuation.”

Smith insisted the saga had not disrupted the team and was not to blame for the defeat against Burnley, their fourth on the trot in all competitions.

He said: “I’m not going to use it as an excuse for our first-half performance. We defended too deep and didn’t deal with their forwards, which we had worked on all week.

“The run is a cause for concern but these are young lads and they are human beings.”