Ridsdale closes the chapter on Leeds UnitedPeter Ridsdale has a book-signing session scheduled in Cardiff on Friday and is wondering aloud how well-attended the event will be.
Cardiff is Ridsdale's surrogate home and the epicentre of his present link with professional football, but the city is an obscure location in which to promote the story of his marriage, divorce and tempestuous affair with Leeds United.
The Welsh will read with interest the thoughts and claims of United We Fall: Boardroom Truths About the Beautiful Game.
Its author is now Cardiff City's chairman, a fact that makes details of Ridsdale's association with Leeds – and in particular his part in United's financial implosion – wholly relevant to the principality and the future of its largest club.
But the tome was not produced for the benefit of the people of Wales. It is, says Ridsdale, his honest version of his relationship with Leeds, the club and the city.
More specifically, it is his apology to the people he left behind, and for the problems they inherited from him.
There are, he admits tellingly, no book-signing sessions planned for the capital of Yorkshire.
The 55-year-old is no longer well-received in Leeds, and no longer looks for a warm welcome here.
He rarely visits the city and does not expect to see his reputation restored.
It is hardly a surprise to him, then, that the timing, the content and the merits of United We Fall have become subjects of intense discussion.
Popular or not, Ridsdale is a man whose name alone initiates debate.
His publication has raised two obvious questions – why publish the book, and why publish it now?
The second query has a simple answer.
Until the conclusion of the Department of Trade and Industry's inquiry into the handling of United's finances by Ridsdale and his board, the former Leeds chairman had his hands tied.
Ridsdale's exoneration by the DTI last year left him free to produce the book which had been on his mind ever since he was ejected from Elland Road in 2003.
But in writing his memoirs – and publishing a record of four decades of involvement with Leeds – he knew he was treading on stony ground, and raking up issues that certain United supporters would prefer to remain buried.
Ridsdale was the people's chairman, but the chairman who ultimately led the club down the road to ruin.
He was not, he rightly insists, solely responsible for the irresponsible financial management of United, but he was head of the table when the walls caved in beneath monstrous debts.
Leeds – as a city and as a body of fans – has never forgiven him for that but they have, at last, been given more refreshing matters to concern themselves with.
The club entered League One's play-off positions 10 days ago.
It seemed almost incredible, then, that the dominant headlines of the following week centred around Ridsdale's autobiography – around David O'Leary, Martin O'Neill and – of course – the scribe himself.
But Ridsdale wanted his say, and believes he is entitled to it. If nothing else, he can at least claim to have fronted up to what became the most spectacular collapse in English football.
"I'd felt that for four-and-a-half years I'd kept my mouth shut," says Ridsdale.
"Essentially, I wanted to bring finality to my relationship and association with Leeds – by saying I was sorry.
"It was an opportunity for me to try to draw a line under what had gone before. Leeds United today is nothing to do with me, but for a very long time it was.
"I wanted to say to all football fans that running a club is not as simple as you think it is.
"I wanted to say to all the Leeds fans that I'm sorry – genuinely sorry for the mistakes we made. I also think a lot of fans wake up in the morning and think 'I can do a better job than that' or 'I'd like to be the manager and pick the team'.
"I think my book gives some insight into what it's like to be at the heart of a football club.
"For the last four years, people have spent most of the time having a pop at me.
"I've sat and taken it. If what I've written in response hurts people then all I can argue is that the truth can hurt. And as far as I'm concerned, it is the truth.
"Do I have the right to tell my story in context? Yes I do. I didn't doubt that it was a good idea to have my say, and I think I've done the right thing.
"Some of the reaction to it has been disappointing but I'm happy now that I've drawn the line.
"I'm happy that I've written a book which says it as it was and I'm happy that I've had – at long last – the chance to say sorry to the Leeds United supporters for the things we got wrong. I'm also happy that a hospice in Leeds will be the beneficiaries."
The proceeds from United We Fall are to be donated to St Gemma's Hospice in Moortown, the specialist care centre that Ridsdale supported both professionally and personally while he was chairman of Leeds.
His decision to forego royalties was taken in part to avoid inevitable accusations that he was profiting from a story of demise in which his role was central.
But Ridsdale's motivation for producing his autobiography was never about money.
He saw the book as his opportunity to apologise in the most expansive way possible; he also wanted to stress that his time with Leeds was not exclusively given to failure.
United We Fall begins in 1965 with Ridsdale queuing for a ticket for that year's FA Cup final between Liverpool and Leeds, and there is more to his story than the final, bitter hours.
There is, somewhere in the mind of every fan, a happy memory concerning Ridsdale.
Yet around four-fifths of the book is devoted to his reign as chairman, as it had to be
It is, to the impartial observer, a fascinating story of the boy who became king of his castle, but for United's supporters the recollections hurt.
They hurt because, for a time, Ridsdale was one of them.
He was there on a tragic night in Istanbul and a glorious night in Valencia, the two moments when he and the club's following felt as close as they ever would.
But the manner of his fall, and the fall-out from his exit, means the story of Ridsdale is intrinsically linked to what has become the most complicated crisis in the history of English football.
"The big difficulty when people talk about me and Leeds United is that they only talk about the end," says Ridsdale.
"The end was clearly disappointing and the mistakes we made were ultimately very damaging. But we also did a lot of things right.
"For five-and-a-half years when I was chairman, we were in the top five of the Premier League for five of those.
"We had two European semi-finals, and we had to handle issues that were thrown at us and which nothing could have prepared us for – like the trials of Jonathan (Woodgate) and Lee (Bowyer), and the terrible night in Istanbul.
"I've had more good times than bad times, and that's a fact. But given my time again, I think we'd have said no more often. We'd have realised that certain things were a bridge too far in terms of finance.
What I've always been prepared to do is take the blame for what happened under my stewardship.
"But I still remember the way the supporters were when we were playing against Real Madrid and Barcelona, and the semi-final in Valencia. Also during the game when we beat Deportivo at Elland Road.
"There were some fantastic nights and we shared them together.
"For all of that to be eradicated from people's memories as if it was nothing to do with me is an imbalanced perspective.
"People say today's newspapers are tomorrow's chip paper – don't you believe it. My faults are resurrected all the time. There were so many positive things written about the Leeds United era that were thrown out of the window because of what happened at the end.
"But if you are chairman, the buck stops with you. I have to say that, along with a board of directors, it was my fault."
It was not, clearly, the way in which Ridsdale expected his stewardship to end. Even now, there is an element of disbelief in his assessment of the way his dream job conspired to cast him as a villain in a city where he was once a figurehead.
"Whatever else can be said of Ridsdale, it is ludicrous to claim that he wished for this scenario.
He was, he says, relieved when Ken Bates rolled into town – providing what Ridsdale calls "a football man for a wonderful football club".
"It would please him more if Leeds can recover in such a way that allows United to exist outside a context involving their former chairman.
Ridsdale is confident that the recovery is in motion. He also believes that the timing of his book is perfect, in spite of suggestions that the publication has landed at precisely the moment when Leeds appear to be moving on.
"But isn't that good news?" he asks. "If Leeds were still continuing to struggle, people would turn round and say 'we're still paying the price for what Ridsdale left behind'.
"But the club are flying – they're flying high. Surely with that wave of optimism Leeds fans can read the book knowing that the team have turned the corner, and hopefully will be in the Championship next season. With any luck, after that they'll be back in the Premier league. I think the timing is perfect.
"If I win them over then I win them over. I'd like to do that, but life's not so simple.
"I've kept my mouth shut but this is my opportunity to say sorry and to say read the story – but ultimately to say the Ridsdale era is finally finished.
"Good luck to Leeds United."
YEP