Ridsdale is poised to lift lid on Leeds

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Ridsdale, who was in charge at Elland Road from 1997 to 2003 in the heady period when the team reached the semi-final of the Champions League, is dismayed by continually being blamed for the club's current demise despite having left more than four years ago.

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Leeds went into administration and were relegated to League One last season.

Ridsdale, now chairman of Cardiff City, wants to put the record straight and his surprise appearance at the Nancy Dell'Olio book launch, as a guest of literary super agent Ali Gunn, suggests he is about to do so.

Ridsdale already has links with Gunn through Five Live's Ian Dennis, a close confidant during his time at Leeds.

Dennis's brother Steve, who works closely with Gunn, ghosted Princess Diana bodyguard Paul Burrell's life story as well as Ashley Cole's much castigated book. He seems certain to be Ridsdale's ghost as well.

A proper book by Ridsdale would have to explain his extravagant spending at Leeds that earned him the nickname Father Christmas.

It will be also intriguing to read what he has to say about his manager David O'Leary, his successor as chairman Professor John McKenzie and tycoon Allan Leighton, the chairman of Royal Mail and a former Leeds director who has so far escaped any blame for what went wrong.