Marcelo Bielsa has made the shock claim he does not feel a success at Leeds.
Bielsa is loved by Leeds fans because he ended their 16-year exile from the Premier League last season and is set to lead them to their best finish since 2002.
The Leeds head coach played down winning the Championship and says his players deserve all the credit.
Bielsa also dismissed Leeds’ successful return to the top flight, insisting it would only be notable If they were higher up the table.
“I don’t think I have triumphed in this job,” he said. “The word triumph is something that evades me.
“To have been promoted, it was very difficult not to achieve this because the level of the team deserved it.
“Once we came into the Premier League, if we were between fifth and tenth, to have achieved this would have been a valuable achievement.
“But we’re not and have not regularly been in these positions.
“I don't think anyone can describe it as a successful period.”
Bielsa also rejected any suggestion that he has a job for life at Leeds, even though chairman Andrea Radrizzani and his board want him to carry on next season.
The Argentinian claims he does not feel unsackable and said: “There are not many managers in football who have the legitimacy to stay in a job as long as they like.
“There may be other coaches with more merit than I have that can aspire to the sensation you suggest, but it's not my case, sincerely.”
Bielsa, 65, clocked up 1,000 days in charge of Leeds on Thursday and says he feels like he could stay “for the rest of my life”.
Yet he insists he cannot take his future at Elland Road for granted because fortunes can change quickly in football.
“I always think I will stay forever in all the jobs I take and I go from day to day thinking I will be here for the rest of my life,” he said.
“At the same time, it’s a profession which usually has interruptions and it’s far more common that a manager is fired than he stays in one place for a very long time.”
Bielsa also played down his legacy, claiming most of his former players who are now coaches, like Mauricio Pochettino, do not play his style of football.
“Pochettino says he does not feel he represents my ideas, which is true,” he said. “He has his own ideas which from my point of view are better than mine.”
