Former New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Danny Cepero admits he did not see his axing from the club coming at all.

The 24-year old was given his marching orders in February after three seasons with the club and sasys he did not forecast what head coach Hans Backe had to tell him.

"I had no prior warning and was only told that head coach Hans Backe wanted to see me," Cepero told bigapplesoccer.com. "In that meeting, in which both Hans and assistant coach Richie Williams were present, Hans only said that based on the past few weeks, both in Spain and in New Jersey, the team was looking to head in a different direction regarding the goalkeeping position. As such, my services would no longer be needed."

Cepero admits he felt hardly done by after the decision was made and believes the coaching staff were not too impressed with his goalkeeping abilities.

"To be honest, I don't feel that I was given a completely fair shake with the coaching staff," he said. "While I know I'm far from a superstar goalkeeper, I thought I played well in the weeks leading up to the La Manga trip. As for the trip itself, I only played in a scoreless 45 mins against CSKA Moscow and was one of five goalkeepers in camp. As such, my exposure was fairly limited. Once we had five goalkeepers in camp, I knew that something was going on and that they were looking to change the goalkeeping corps.

"In my brief conversations with Hans and Eric, I gathered that both men weren't overly impressed with my abilities," he adde. "From what I could infer, both didn't rate me as a goalkeeper for the team that they envisioned and while I respect their decision, I could tell that based on the large number of goalkeepers in camp and my lack of playing time, I was already behind the eight ball."