I could have saved Leeds from the drop, insists Ridsdale

Amid crumbling fortunes on the pitch and spiralling debts off it, Ridsdale was ousted in March 2003, bringing to an end one of the most amazing periods in Elland Road history.

In seven years, Leeds went from the Champions League semi-finals to the third tier of the English game, with Ridsdale blamed by many for the staggering demise.

To this day, Ridsdale is so vilified within the West Yorkshire city that he is unable to publicise his account of life at United for fear of violence from disgruntled supporters.

It is not a decision he expects will change any time in the foreseeable future, given the success of what he perceived to be a smear campaign against him by former members of the Leeds board.

But, while he believes current chairman Ken Bates is the right man to restore the Whites' fortunes, Ridsdale remains convinced he would have halted the slide before it reached anything like its' eventual catastrophic ending.

"I do not believe Leeds would be in League One if I had stayed," he said

"People will probably think I am an arrogant so-and-so but I believe in being honest and straightforward.

"I have got nothing against the current management at all. I was very pleased when Ken Bates took over because he is steeped in football experience.

"But I also know Leeds did not get relegated out of the Premier League because of financial issues. If it was the case, why did they not start selling a load of players during the previous summer after I had left?

"When you look at the team they had available at that time, with the right football management, they should have survived in the Premier League. Who knows what might have happened after that? Would we have been able to restructure the finances? I do not know.

"But it always makes me smile when people say financial issues stopped Leeds winning. Leeds stopped winning when they were top of the league.

"The issue at hand is that a book was published, for good or ill, that coincided with the team starting not to win. That was the start of Leeds' demise."

The 'book' Ridsdale refers to was David O'Leary's 'Leeds United on Trial', a supposed diary of a season the Irishman's contract gave the chairman no power to stop.

The book's inflammatory title and inside revelations of a season, that included the infamous assault trials of Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, caused shockwaves across the game.

Ridsdale was in virtual ignorance over its existence until the title was revealed at a press conference marking the end of the trial.

From virtually that moment on, Leeds descended into a freefall which only stopped following the 15-point deduction imposed on the club by the Football League last summer which Ridsdale, in his new capacity as Cardiff chairman, voted for.

While he acknowledges many, probably even the majority, of Leeds fans will never forgive him, by taking the unprecedented step of donating all royalties to St Gemma's Hospice, Ridsdale hopes to encourage followers to read the book and at least see how events unfolded from his side.

"I am not trying shift the blame," he said.

"Leeds United was my club, as a boy, as a fan, as a director and finally as a chairman. I made a lot of mistakes and I hold my hands up for them.

"But there are a number of people who never accepted blame for what happened.

"To this day, I don't think I have ever seen David O'Leary say he did anything wrong and when Leeds were relegated, it was still my fault even though I left 15 months earlier."

While it is clear Ridsdale is irritated by O'Leary's failure to share some of the responsibility for debts which reached an eye-bulging £78million on his watch, the former chairman is equally annoyed at his successor, Professor John McKenzie.

It was McKenzie's account of Ridsdale's free-spending ways, including the bizarre goldfish story, that discredited the previous regime.

"To suggest the biggest single mistake I made - and I made plenty - was to have two goldfish tanks, which cost £200 per annum, was just laughable," said Ridsdale.

"Yet it became a signal of my extravagance and largesse. I am bemused by it.

"I actually think it was a deliberate part of a strategy to nail me to the floor.

"During a DTI investigation, I had to show every decision to sell or buy a player had been approved by the board.

"I had to show it wasn't just me going off spending recklessly. I also had to show we had enough cashflow forecasts that showed we could survive financially. We did that too.

"To my face, Professor McKenzie was very supportive.

"Then he started hammering me for the number of company cars we had, when the number he stated was twice what we actually had.

"I used to drive from home every morning and return every evening, when I wasn't staying overnight, in my own car and I was driving.

"Professor McKenzie was being chauffeur driven to and from home. Nobody says a word about that."