Danny Mills has revealed the reasoning behind Brentford defender Pontus Jansson’s exit from Leeds United in the summer.

Jansson had been a key player for Leeds since joining from Torino in 2016, making 120 appearances, but was offloaded by the Whites in the summer.

The Swedish international joined Brentford for a reported fee of between £5.5 and £6.5 million, with the Whites looking to on-loan Brighton defender Ben White as his replacement.

There were contrasting reports on the motivation behind the central defender’s exit, with some suggesting it was due to financial fair play and others claiming that Marcelo Bielsa had pushed him out.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Mills provided his views on Jansson’s departure from the Yorkshire club.

He said: “There are a lot of issues around why he left the club so suddenly. It was a very dramatic and quite a swift departure.

”His biggest problem at Leeds was he wanted to be a folk hero, he wanted to be that type of player.

"Whipping the fans into a frenzy at times and not always concentrating solely on his football. Leeds have been fortunate they've got Ben White who I think is an upgrade.

“(White) has been exceptional, he got player of the month in the Championship or defender of the month last couple of weeks, he's been superb.

"He's a good player, Jansson. He's got a lot to offer, he just needs to calm down a little bit and concentrate on playing the game and not playing up to the crowd as much as anything else."

The Verdict

Mills comments seem to back up the suggestions that Bielsa saw Jansson as a disruptive influence behind the scenes and pushed him out.

At the moment, replacing Jansson with White seems to have been something of a masterstroke. Leeds have conceded the least goals in the Championship this season and are fourth in the table, while Brentford are down in 14th place.

One area where it could be argued Leeds are missing the Swede is defending set-pieces. Four of the seven goals they have conceded in all competitions this season have come from corners and as Jansson won the second-most aerial duels per game in the Leeds squad last season, according to WhoScored, it would be understandable if his absence was having an impact.

[freshpress-poll ]