Roberto Forzoni has moved to quash rumours that he resigned as manager of Tooting & Mitcham and fired a parting shot at those in charge.

Following the 5-2 Ryman League Division One South defeat at Hythe Town, Forzoni says he was asked to "step down" by the club's owner Steve Adkins, via a telephone call with chairman Bill Hill.

Forzoni said: "Bill asked to see me. He still had his phone in his hand and said he’d taken a call from Steve and he has asked that I step down or resign, that was straight after the game.

"I did not say anything. I was still reeling from the result. I went in to see the players, told them I had been asked to step down."

However, Adkins denied having any influence over the decision saying: "I have nothing to do with the football side of things."

Forzoni said: "It is typical of the club. You get a message from Bill saying Steve wants this, and then Steve will say Bill wants this. No one is willing to tell you to your face.

"There are lots of issues within the club. Bill is the chairman and he did not know that the players weren’t being paid, that player registrations weren’t going through – we couldn’t play Sos Yao on Saturday because his registration had not been processed properly."

The former first team coach at Brighton, Crystal Palace and Brentford arrived as the new manager in May, meaning his reign only lasted four and a half months.

He said: "The reason is, I suspect a few clubs have dropped their budgets and they want to follow suit. So they bring in a new guy, they drop the budget and says that’s what you’ve got to play with.

"But I don’t know, it all happened so quickly. We’re in the process of rebuilding something from scratch. The results weren’t great, we had three defeats on the spin, but no-one hurt as much as me.

"But they hadn’t won a cup game since 2009 and we won an FA Cup and FA Trophy game. They had won five games before Christmas last year and they only won about eight games all year, and we’ve won four before the end of September.

"There are massive problems, they’ve sacked three people from within the football department. It is a difficult place to work, but it is a good club with good players and supporters, who deserve a bit better than that."

Forzoni posted a statement on the club's website saying:

I can categorically state that I did not resign my position from the club. Bill Hill and Chris Wooley asked to see me and said that owner Steve Adkins had telephoned and asked for me to be relieved of my duties.

Having been appointed to bring some stability and professionalism to the first team set up, a number internal issues within the cub made this objective very difficult.

Progress takes time, and whilst football is a results based business, seven weeks and 11 games is no where near long enough, having been asked to change a culture and professionalism within an organization that has been through very difficult times.

Assistant manager Jamie Martin will take charge of the league match with Walton Casuals on Tuesday night.