Danny Mills believes it was the right time for Leeds United to part company with Marcelo Bielsa, but claims the Argentinian will always be a club legend.
The 66-year-old masterminded the Whites return to the Premier League and lead the club to a ninth placed finish last season.
Nonetheless, the Leeds 'hero' was unable to repeat the feat this season with his squad blighted by injuries.
Speaking exclusively to Genting Casino, the former England international right back heaped praise on Bielsa, but believes a refusal to change tactics cost him his job
Mills said: "There’s an awful lot of conjecture around Marcelo Bielsa’s departure, Leeds fans hero and worship Marcelo Bielsa because of what he’s done for the club, and rightly so.
"The club were languishing outside the Premier League for 16 seasons, and he came in with a big reputation – he was a huge coup for Leeds United – I still think it was a gamble as he had never worked in England. In his first season, he took a team from 13 th in the Championship to the play offs, where they fell short.
"Then the following season, he took them up to the Premier League as Champions. He will always be a hero for that and rightly so. He conducted himself brilliant. The players were made to appreciate how privileged they were to be professional footballers, playing for Leeds and he created a connection with the fans."
Mills, who made 101 appearances for the Whites questioned Bielsa's refusal to adapt his tactics given injuries to the likes of Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford.
He continued: "This season, he’s missed Kalvin Phillips, who has always been the glue in the team, even when they were in the Championship. When he wasn’t in the team there was a huge chasm from box to box in midfield.
"Bamford has been out for a huge amount of time. Liam Cooper has been missing. If you haven’t got Liam Cooper, the leader in defence, you haven’t got your midfield lynchpin in Kalvin Phillips, and you haven’t got your striker that sets the tone, then surely you have to adapt your football, it would be foolish not to."
Mills applauded Bielsa's principles but believes that teams had found it easy to play against them and that is what cost the beloved coach his job.
He continued: "When the man-to-man system works it’s outstanding, but teams started to work them out this season. Pep Guardiola did it fantastically well at the Etihad, 3-0 up after 30 minutes, Leeds going man-to-man.
"Phil Foden and Bernado Silva pulled Leeds all over the place. Even at 3-0 down, Leeds kept doing the same thing. It gets to a point where that becomes madness because you’re not going to beat Manchester City 4-3 or 5-4, when you’re 3-0 down after 20 minutes and you’ve only had two or three touches of the ball at times.
"So, when you look at results this season, conceding 20 goals in 4 Premier League games in February, more goals in a month than anybody’s ever conceded, they are in big trouble and have fallen down the table.
"If Burnley get two points, or more than two points from their game in hand and if Everton get one point from their two games in hand, then Leeds slip into the bottom three.
"At the moment the table looks a little bit false because you have teams with two games in hand, three games in hand in some cases.
"When you look at it purely based on results this season, I think the club made the decision. They would rather take the risk of putting somebody new in charge, rather than wait to see what happens."
