He’s an easy target at the moment, but Ken Bates has blasted former Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale. As though everything was hunky dory at Chelsea.
Within 12 months with Bates as chairman, he says Leeds have been transformed from a club riddled with debt into promotion contenders in the Championship.
Bates: ‘The difference between me and Ridsdale is, at Chelsea, I always assumed we would finish 10th and get knocked out of both cups in the first round. Anything else was a bonus.
‘Ridsdale worked on the assumption that they would qualify for Europe every season and do well in both cups. Anything else was a disaster.
‘We had a £75million bond that was used to build the hotels and the best stadium in Europe. That was like a mortgage. The only debt was £20million and that was containable because we qualified for Europe. But we had £150million worth of assets.
‘The two hotels were worth £50million. We spent money on assets, not like bloody Ridsdale, who spent it on players.’
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