Swansea City midfielder Mark Gower has hit out at manager Michael Laudrup.

He has been on loan at Charlton Athletic since March and has given up hope of an extension in south Wales, claiming that Laudrup "doesn't like players over 30".

Gower said: "The horrible thing for me at Swansea was the manager had made his mind up that I was not part of his plans before he'd even seen me play, which is not very nice.

"When a new boss comes in you want the opportunity to impress. But from day one he said he doesn't like players over the age of 30 and he brought in two or three midfield players.

"So from being involved - either starting or on the bench - I went from second or third choice to fourth, fifth or sixth."

Gower, who joined Swansea in 2008, also told the South London Press: "When the cup games came around it meant an opportunity to impress.

"The manager said it was important for the fringe players to use the cup to get some games under their belt, but all of a sudden we drew Liverpool away and those lads were out again.

"He kind of went back on his word. The writing was on the wall from day one - I just didn't know it then. That is the only disappointment I've got from Swansea - out of the five years there were four really good ones."