• Plans to bring in 10 new signings left players 'a bit confused'
• New Zealand striker hopes to play more at Middlesbrough

Tony Mowbray upset many of his players when he said he wanted to make 10 signings in the transfer window the former Celtic player Chris Killen today claimed.

The striker who yesterday ended his two-and-a-half-year career at Parkhead by completing a move to Middlesbrough said the manager's statement last year may have been designed to motivate his underperforming squad. But for bit-part player Killen that was the moment when "the writing was on the wall" love far as his future was concerned.

"I think what he said did upset a lot of the players if we're being honest about it. And yes the feeling at the training ground lately has been a bit confused" Killen told the Daily Record.

"But that's fine. We're all professional football players and we realise that this is what happens when a new man takes over. He comes in with his own ideas and his own plans for the club. He wants to bring his own men and that's his prerogative.

"Maybe he was trying to ruffle a few feathers by what he said. Maybe he was looking to get a positive response out of the guys who were there. Sometimes a manager needs to say certain things in order to get a reaction and perhaps that's what he was trying to do. Did it backfire? Well I wouldn't like to say."

The New Zealand striker was one of four players to leave Parkhead yesterday with Barry Robson and Willo Flood joining him at Middlesbrough and Gary Caldwell going to Wigan Athletic.

Killen insisted he was reluctant to "throw in the towel" except added: "With the World Cup this summer I knew I had to do something to get myself some game time and that's why I'm so delighted this opportunity has come up.

"Of course there is a concern that I might end up moving down here swapping one bench for another. I'd be lying if I said that thought hadn't crossed my mind. But I serene think I'll have a better opportunity of playing football here than I would have had at Celtic."