Ridsdale refuses to take blame

Peter Ridsdale has no regrets about the profligacy at Leeds during his controversial reign as chairman.

In a BBC documentary called The Money Game, to be shown tomorrow night, Ridsdale claims he was not solely responsible for the catastrophic slump in the club's financial fortunes.

And with a comment sure to anger Leeds fans, he says there was little he could do during his tenure to stop the club's transfer policy spiralling out of control.

"Mistakes were made but I don't regret the ambition we had and the pursuit of that ambition," he said.

"I don't think there's a single thing I could change.

We were probably over ambitious, we went that transfer too far. That in itself causes problems."

A month ago, Leeds revealed a £49.5million loss last season - the worst trading figures in Premiership history - despite a firesale of leading players over the previous 18 months, including Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate, Harry Kewell, Robbie Keane, Robbie Fowler and Lee Bowyer.

But Ridsdale refuses to accept all the blame for Leeds' problems.

"Did we make mistakes? Yes, of course we did. Did we invest too much? Time would suggest that we invested too much as well," he said. "The squad became too big, partly because of a lot of injuries, and then it's difficult to persuade a manager he needs to reduce the squad.

"The model was built on aspirations to be in Europe and at the higher end of the Premier League so you got a high number of television appearances - that's where the money came from."

Danny Mills, who is on loan at Middlesbrough, said that from a players point of view some of the buys two years ago were a "little bit excessive".

He adds: "I think at one point we had six great strikers, probably a bit more than we needed."

The documentary, to be screened at 7.30pm, focuses on the failure of Premiership clubs to be run as successful plcs.

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