John Collins has taken aim at Walter Smith’s Everton tactics and believes they went long to Duncan Ferguson too often.
Collins joined Everton in the summer of 1998 for £2million from Monaco - and went on to make 53 appearances for the Blues.
But after just two years with the Goodison Park club, Collins forced his way out in order to join Fulham, who he helped secure promotion to the Premier League just a year later.
And speaking in an interview with BBC Sportsound, the former Scotland international admitted Smith’s style of play was one of the reasons behind him wanting to leave the Blues.
He said: "I played for Walter (Smith) at Everton, he was organised. He took on a tough job at Everton, we had been fighting relegation the year before.
"I’ve got to be honest that at Everton, the style of football wasn’t what I wanted to do or wanted to play. We had big Dunc (Duncan Ferguson) up front and we would go long too often.
"I went from Monaco where it was total possession and dominating games. At Everton it was never going to be quite like that, controlling games, but it was a little bit too direct going to big Dunc, then he got sold to Newcastle and we brought in Kevin Campbell.
"We were comfortably away from relegation in the two seasons then I had the opportunity when (Jean) Tigana came in for me when he came to Fulham, and I thought ‘I’m going to go back to the style I really enjoy which is getting it off the back four all the time and the game going through me.
"It was a big decision going to Fulham, the first time I left the Premier League in Scotland, England and France and going down a division but I was confident in the players Tigana was signing that we were going to get up at the first chance and we did and it was a really enjoyable season in the Championship.
"We were a quality team, (Luis) Boa Morte, (Louis) Saha, (Steed) Malbranque and we played entertaining football."
