Hearts' majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov claims he waited too long before sacking Graham Rix.
Former Portsmouth and Oxford boss Rix, who took over from George Burley in November, was ousted after just 19 games as head coach at Tynecastle.
The Jambos are still in second place in the Bank of Scotland Premier League and in the semi-finals of the Tennent's Scottish Cup.
But Romanov is still unsatisfied by progress at Tynecastle this season and insists only the players stopped him getting rid of Rix earlier.
He said: "It was my mistake to wait too long for Rix to produce better results. The results had not been satisfying the board for some time and the loss of so many points in the league was disappointing.
"I even suggested we say goodbye to him as head coach earlier but the guys in the team insisted in letting him stay and I followed their wishes.
"However, I feel I've made a mistake by not acting sooner as we lost 24 points in the league since he took charge, as well as precious time."
