Former Leeds United chairman Peter Ridsdale.
Credit: talkSPORT via YouTube
Zak Anderton
Thu 19 December 2024 7:10, UK
Peter Ridsdale believes a lot of things Leeds United fans say about his time as chairman are “unfair”.
The former Leeds chairman first took on the role in 1997 but resigned in 2003, a year before Leeds were relegated from the Premier League to start a tumultuous period in the club’s history.
It took Leeds 16 years to return to the Premier League, though that only lasted two seasons and they now find themselves second in the Championship.
The Whites have had recent dealings with their ex-chairman as Sam Greenwood is currently on loan to Preston, the team which he is currently chairman of.
However, fans haven’t forgiven him for what he put their club through but Ridsdale believes terms such as “financial meltdown” being used is an unfair reflection and claimed that of a £78million debt, £60m was a mortgage on Elland Road.
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“In those days there were no parachute payments but I wasn’t there,” he said on talkSPORT’s How Football Works Podcast (18 December).
“Look, do I take the blame, I don’t take all the blame, do I take responsibility for things we got wrong? Of course, because ultimately the buck stops at the chairman.
“I think that a lot of things that have been said have been unfair. People talk about ‘financial meltdown’ but at the time that I left, we spent a lot of money but we’d also recouped a lot of money.
“We bought Rio Ferdinand for £18million and just sold him in 2002 for £30million to Manchester United.
“We had a lot of assets, we’d just had our accounts valued where we had our playing squad, which in today’s numbers doesn’t sound like a lot of money but £200million and, I think the day I left, we published accounts of debts of £78million, of which over £60million was a 25-year mortgage.”
Peter Ridsdale will never convince Leeds United fans he did good for the club
In the early days of Ridsdale being the chairman of the West Yorkshire outfit, things went well with the club being a force to be reckoned with both domestically and in Europe.
However, after their ex-chairman departed Elland Road, things started to go south. Of course, the club are currently second in the Championship and are doing more than decent but things haven’t always been this good in West Yorkshire.
The Whites even ended up in League One at one stage, which shows how far they fell in such a short space of time, and Risdale has to own his part in that.
Of course, Ridsdale’s time with the club is history now but fans are still well within their rights to feel hurt and betrayed by the now 72-year-old.
Leeds United fans
Leeds United fans at Elland Road
Leeds missed out on promotion to the top tier after a heart-breaking play-off final defeat but are second in the table again this time around as they attempt to get back to the Premier League.
Since the start of the season, Farke’s goal has been to regain the Whites’ Premier League status and at the moment, it feels like he’s going to fulfil that goal.
In other Leeds news, Patrick Bamford looks set to exit Elland Road in 2025.
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