Ipswich new boy Ryan Stevenson has spoken of his relief at leaving Hearts and revealed the full extent of the Scottish club’s problem with regular late payment of wages.
Stevenson, 27, said: "This will surprise people but in my 22 months at the club I was only paid on time on four occasions.
"People don’t really know how we were treated. They think it was just three months of late payments.
"But it was bordering on ridiculous and I don’t even think we’ve seen the last of it. Coming here, it feels as if a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”
Midfielder Stevenson, who has signed an 18-month deal but hopes to stay much longer at Portman Road, decided drastic action was required and went into self-imposed exile last month as a personal protest about the wages fiasco.
He last played for Hearts on December 17th and until arriving in Ipswich at the weekend he trained twice a day at his local gym to keep fit in readiness for a move south.
Defending his decision to effectively go on strike, he added: "It wasn’t a situation I ever wanted to get into. I felt as if I was forced into it, backed into a corner if you like, and there was only so much I could take.
"Forget I’m a footballer. I’m a working man and I wasn’t being paid. In any other walk of life people would have got fed up with the carry on and walked away.
"I didn’t think I had any choice but to make a stand. I had to do it for me and for my family.
"It wasn’t the money that made me do it. I treat people with respect and I think I deserve to be treated the same way. My conscience is clear. I can look at myself in the mirror and know I did the right thing.
"For the last four or five months at Hearts it wasn’t really about football. It was about trying to get through from one day to the next and the last thing a player needs is to be worried about off-the-field matters.”
Stevenson is relishing the challenge on offer at Ipswich but will not be in the starting line-up against Championship leaders West Ham at Portman Road tonight.
He said: "Of course I want to play but it’s been a difficult few months and I need to get sharper.
"I see this as a step up from the SPL. I could have stayed in Scotland but it was always my dream to go back to England.
"I started at Chelsea. That was my apprenticeship and I had four great years there. But even when I went back up north it was always my plan and ambition to return to England and have another crack at it.
"Even when Rangers and Celtic are interested in players, I think they are more than keen to come down here, and I don’t think it matters whether it’s the Premier League or the Championship.
"I know Ipswich are down near the bottom at the moment but I see them as a Premiership club in waiting. They’ve been there before and my aim is to make sure we get there again.”
Stevenson, who was previously with St Johnstone and boyhood favourites Ayr, scored 11 goals in 67 appearances for the Edinburgh club and his displays saw him earn a place in the Scotland squad, although he has yet to win his first full cap.
While fully focused on making a major impact at Ipswich, he admits he would love to see Hearts prosper without him, although he fears that won’t be the case.
He took a swipe at controversial owner Vladimir Romanov, adding: "He’s not doing Hearts any favours. They are a massive club fans-wise and facilities-wise and I’ve left a lot of pals there.
"The players deserve great credit for the run they have been on while putting up with what they have been through. But under the owner I don’t think the club is being run as well as it should be. I hope that changes sooner rather than later but I don’t know that it will.”
Stevenson is set to become a father for the first time in six weeks’ time when wife Hannah is due to give birth to their son.
He laughed: "Hannah’s coming down this week to have a look round with me, but I’ll be sending her back up the road in plenty of time for the boy to be born. I’m not stupid. I want him to be 100 per cent Scottish — not half and half!”
A goal Stevenson scored for Ayr against Alloa in 2007 has received a lot of attention from Town fans since news of his move broke but he says he can’t promise to replicate it every week: "Maybe every second week!” he joked.