ALAN Hutton revealed his anger and frustration with Aston Villa last night after they denied him a deadline day transfer despite having no intention of playing him this season.

Hutton had his bags packed and was ready to move out before the English transfer deadline closed at 11pm on Monday but despite three offers from La Liga clubs - he spent part of last season on loan with Real Mallorca - Villa could not agree a deal with any of them. The Scotland full-back's only realistic chance of seeing any club football soon will be if he is loaned to a club in the Sky Bet Championship. Barclays Premier League clubs cannot currently loan players to each other or to foreign clubs, but they can send them into the lower leagues.

Hutton has not played for Villa in the last 16 months. Alex McLeish signed him but he has not featured since Paul Lambert took over as manager in June last year. Last season the 28-year-old was loaned to Nottingham Forest for the first half of the season and to Mallorca for the second. Although the club was eventually relegated, he played 17 times for Mallorca, including matches against Real Madrid and Barcelona. But it made no difference to Lambert.

"I am in limbo," he said. "I had a few opportunities to go back to Spain, there were a few options, but unfortunately Villa could not agree to the loan terms. It has left me in a position where I am not too sure what is going to happen. It is very frustrating.

"If you could picture me that day [Monday] I was bouncing off the walls. To have options to go to different teams and they can't - or are not willing - to agree terms is very annoying, put it that way. I was desperate to get out there.

"Mallorca want me back, but I had three options to go back to La Liga and none of them could agree terms. I have had no explanation. If you don't want somebody then you let them go. You do everything you can to help the player I would have thought. They seem to have had their mind set on a certain deal and it wasn't what the other clubs wanted and they eventually just moved on."

Despite having two years of his Villa contract left Hutton's relationship with the club is so estranged that he admitted he had no idea if he had been given a first-team squad number for this season [in fact he has not been registered with the Premier League]. "It is irrelevant for me. There were lots of us: Darren Bent, Stephen Ireland, Charles N'Zogbia, who have just been put to the side and for me it is not what should be done. We are not young boys, we have played international games."

His Villa and Scotland team-mate, Barry Bannan, secured an escape on Monday when he joined Crystal Palace. "I was absolutely buzzing for him that he got out because he doesn't deserve to be treated like that. But unfortunately for myself it didn't come off and I am angry about it."

Perhaps surprisingly, his grievance is only with Villa for not accepting offers rather than with Lambert for not playing him. "I have never fallen out with him. I respect him and all the rest of it. But in football terms it is done, so it is time to move on.

"I would rather be playing week in week out and then coming to the Scotland squads. I like to think I am a fit guy and I look after myself, and in training I have been doing some extra stuff. I want to prove to him [Gordon Strachan] and everyone else, not just here and Scotland, but also the manager at Villa and these kind of guys that I can say: 'you might not want me but this is what I can do and what I am good at'."

There was reassurance for Hutton from Strachan, at least, when he stressed that not playing regular club football need not prevent him being picked for Scotland. "If you look at Alan's performances against Croatia and England you think 'those are top teams in the world and he's one of the best players on the pitch'," said the manager. "I'll keep picking him, unless somebody comes along that's far better."