Mark Hughes resigned as Fulham manager because the club did not match his ambitions and not because he expected to take the vacant Aston Villa job, according to his representative, Kia Joorabchian.
Hughes activated a break clause in his contract to walk away from Craven Cottage on Thursday after a single season in charge but Villa said they are not interested in his services.
Joorabchian told Sky Sports News: "He's an ambitious manager. One of the things he looked for at the end of the season was to see if there was an ambition for Fulham to go to the next level.
Mark left Fulham because he wanted to explore his aspirations, [he] wants to go to a club where he can fight for titles and win championships.
"He gave Fulham everything he possible could in [his] one year and he wanted to be honest with them, rather than them spend in the transfer window buying players that he would recommend and then he comes to leave in November or December or January - the middle of the year."
Regarding Villa Joorabchian said: "There's a lot of press speculation saying that certain jobs are available or coming to be available and Mark [would take them]. This is not true. Mark left Fulham because he wanted to go in a different direction. Villa have their own direction."
Joorabchian denied that Hughes had agreed a new contract with Fulham only to change his mind 24 hours later but he suggested that, if the club had offered him a new one earlier, then Hughes might still be their manager.
"Contract talks started probably a week, two weeks before the end of the season. But it was only five or six days ago when something was placed in front of him," he said.
John Terry has said he would welcome Hughes as the replacement for Carlo Ancelotti as Chelsea manager and Joorabchian said the Welshman would be "honoured" regarding any potential approach.
"Mark has aspirations to manage [at a club like Chelsea] - I'm sure that if they approach [him] Mark would be more than happy to speak with them, it would be an honour for him," he said, adding that, if Harry Redknapp left Tottenham Hotspur for Chelsea, Hughes would also be interested in managing Spurs.
"These are big clubs - Mark would be more than happy to be manager of any those clubs."