UK time is: 21:29:54

Choose your club

Other Sites

Network Navigation

Vital Partners

'If It's Football, It's Vital'

Bates 'Buy Hotels Not Players!'

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.'










Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Monaco

Writer:  Mail feedback, articles or suggestions

Date:Sunday January 15 2006

Time: 1:15PM

 

Have Your Say

Click here to register an account

Recent Articles

Archived Articles

List All Vital Leeds Articles
Have your say
Click here to suggest an article
Click here to suggest a poll

Vital Members League (view all)

1. Tiny T 530
2. dazza71 142
3. iwa 67
4. deslondon 53
5. erni 38
6. SimonTVW 31
7. King Billy 13
8. 8ballali 12
9. woowoo61 11
10. ultraleeds 7

League Results (view all)

League Table (view table)

Team P W D L GD Pts
10. Derby County 46 16 13 17 3 61
11. Burnley 46 16 13 17 2 61
12. Birmingham 46 15 16 15 -6 61
13. Leeds Utd 46 17 10 19 -9 61
14. Ipswich 46 16 12 18 -13 60
15. Blackpool 46 14 17 15 -1 59
16. Middlesbrough 46 18 5 23 -9 59

Breaking League News

LUFC Long season continues for Austin
» Leeds Utd : 20/05/2013 20:54:00
LUFC Leeds announce new Vice-Chairman
» Leeds Utd : 20/05/2013 20:34:00
Boro off to the coast
» Middlesbrough : 20/05/2013 19:44:00
Foxes Looking Forward To Hong Kong Sevens
» Leicester City : 20/05/2013 18:16:00
Murray's Op A Success
» Crystal Palace : 20/05/2013 18:05:00
Tranmere is Fifth Summer Friendly!
» Burnley : 20/05/2013 17:51:00
Tykes Transfer Rumours - Lee Novak
» Barnsley : 20/05/2013 17:49:00

Current Site Poll (view all polls)

Where do we most need to strengthen?
Suggested By:  
Goalkeeper 6%
Right Full Back 0%
Centre Defence 5%
Left Full Back 0%
Right Wing 6%
Central Midfield 43%
Left Wing 26%
Striker 14%