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MICK Malthouse has taken aim at Carlton president Mark LoGiudice, two days after the Blues sacked him and ended his 31-year coaching career.
Malthouse blasted LoGiudice for a media interview earlier this season where the Blues boss did not rule out captain Marc Murphy and reigning best and fairest winner Bryce Gibbs as trade options at the end of this season.
He also criticised LoGiudice for the president's letter to club members on Monday, saying it was a bit "self-serving".
In his first extensive interview since being sacked, Malthouse also insisted on Fox Footy that he did not set out to fast-track the dismissal.
Malthouse's fate was sealed when he gave a provocative Tuesday morning radio interview.
The Blues sacked him hours later.
Malthouse said LoGiudice's comments about Murphy and Gibbs had done substantial damage to the confidence of the team.
The pair said over the weekend that Carlton officials had since assured them that they are not potentially up for trade at the end of this season.
"I can draw on experience and I reckon we got it wrong by inadvertently costing players the trust, which automatically offends me," Malthouse said.
"I couldn't believe how that was taking place.
"The last six weeks have been an unbelievable job of trying to regenerate faith in them playing football.
"When I see Murphy's name out there and I see Gibbs' name out there ... how do you restore that?
"The last six weeks, I've thought of every possible way, how to restore confidence in the group and that's been very, very hard."
Malthouse met with LoGiudice and club chief executive Steven Trigg on Monday amid widespread speculation that the club would soon sack the veteran coach.
LoGiudice then sent out a letter to Blues members, saying no decision would be made until the club's bye during in round 10.
Malthouse said the letter was not supportive enough of the players.
"I know what they (players) were putting up with, I know how much they were hurting," he said.
"I thought it was a bit self-serving - how people felt around the club - it was such a negative.
"My thing was that we had to protect the players, because they're already damaged.
"I was very, very disappointed in the way it came out."
Malthouse said there was no intent to force the issue when he spoke to SEN on Tuesday morning.
"There were a few things that took place before that," he said.
He also strongly denied speculation that he agreed to coach Carlton because it meant he could pass Jock McHale's record of 715 games as a senior coach.
Malthouse broke the record at the start of the month, but that was the start of a horror four-game losing streak that led to his sacking.
"That was such a burden - I wish Jock had coached 1000 games and it was beyond me," he said.
