Marian Kello has given his side of the dispute with the Hearts board that has seen him dropped from the first team after refusing a transfer to Austria Vienna.

The goalkeeper was told on January 31 that Hearts had accepted a £100,000 deadline day bid from Austria but Kello rejected the chance to move.

The established first-choice keeper was then left out of the squad for Hearts’ Scottish Cup match against St Johnstone on Sunday with the club initially saying that the player was injured before manager Paulo Sergio admitted that a “political” situation was behind Kello’s omission.

The Slovakia international, who is out of contract at the end of the season, insists that he is being pushed out by senior figures at Tynecastle but remains keen to continue playing for the club until summer.

“The club has signed two young keepers, I have been told,” Kello said. “I don’t feature in the future of the club and I haven’t been offered a new contract.

“I want to play for Hearts but they say they don’t want me for next season because of the money problems and they want to work with youngsters.

“For me it looks like I don’t want to be here at the club but if I have a chance to play, I will play.

“I will give 100% because the club game me the chance to be here, to improve and to be in the national team.”

Kello said that the club informed him that if he refused to leave in January then it was likely to be left out of Sergio’s plans. He denied that he had rejected a move because he already had a pre-contract move lined up and said that speculation about a move to Celtic was unfounded.

“They forced me to go and they said if you don’t go you might not play so that’s the point,” he explained. “It’s not like I don’t want to be playing.

“It’s not like I want to go to Celtic or something, like is in the papers.

“You know why? Because it looks like I would be sitting on the bench in the Scottish League. For me there’s no point.

“If you go there and you have a 50/50 chance to play, you go there and you try it but obviously there’s not really a chance to play because the manager likes someone else and that’s always a point to consider.”

The keeper revealed that he had been hurt by the ongoing situation after giving his best efforts since arriving in Edinburgh from Kaunas in 2008.

He admitted: “For me it’s very difficult because I’ve been here for three-and-a-half years and I try to be honest and fight for the club and everything but they just try to pull me down all the time.

“I don’t know why. I always try my best for the club.”

Kello said that he had no issue with Sergio’s position and that he understood that the manager wanted to play him and had approached the board in an attempt to persuade them to change their stance.

He added that it was Sergio who had told him that he would be dropped and explained that although there was some basis to the injury report he had been fit to play if required.

“It was Saturday or Sunday when I was told by the manager [that I wouldn’t play],” he said. “Sergejus Fedotovas had already told me on January 31 that it might happen that I wouldn’t be playing so when the manager said it I though ‘oh, here it comes’.

“There was something in it because on Thursday and Friday I had a back problem but on the Saturday I did full training.”

The goalkeeper said that he had been compelled to speak out after reading misleading reports about his situation and wanted to set the record straight.

“I had to say something because I have seen the mess that is in the papers,” he revealed. “I don’t agree with this so I need to say how things are. I don’t fear that they might do something. I will protect myself.

“[Hearts] should show me respect. If they want me they should offer me a new contract, not force me out of here. I was expecting more from the club.”