The rise and fall of Leeds United can be told in three episodes starring Jonathan Woodgate. The high-flying success with all its attendant madness is perhaps encapsulated in the story of the Woodgate passport.

The rise and fall of Leeds United can be told in three episodes starring Jonathan Woodgate. The high-flying success with all its attendant madness is perhaps encapsulated in the story of the Woodgate passport. Convening at Leeds-Bradford airport in 2001 for a European trip, there was a moment of panic among the Leeds contingent when the centre-half was asked for his passport. "You told me to put it somewhere safe," protested Woodgate to Leeds officials. "So I did. It's in the safe at home." Cue a charter jet detour to Teesside.

The second episode is darker. The arrest and trial of the England defender after a drunken night out left a student severely injured on the ground was emblematic of a period of excess that led to severe recrimination. Woodgate was convicted of affray in 2001 and sentenced to community service.

The departure of Woodgate to Newcastle United in 2003 was the moment when the Leeds dream was interrupted by the roaring fury of the fans. "There is a perception that I left because of the debt," says Peter Ridsdale, the high-profile chairman of the soaring club of the early millennium. "I did not. I went because the fans turned against me."

Ridsdale, who oversaw a Leeds campaign that ended in the semi-finals of the Champions League, has stayed in football to watch the Yorkshire club lose to Histon in the FA Cup. The irony runs deeper. As Leeds seem to lurch from one crisis to another, Ridsdale has redeemed himself as chairman of Cardiff City, with the Welsh club reaching last year's FA Cup final and now in the race for promotion to the Barclays Premier League.

He is not smug. But he is not shy, either. "The debt at Leeds was £78.9m," says Ridsdale, "but I never felt that was the major issue in my departure. The fans made it clear they wanted me to go, so I went. The debt was manageable." Ridsdale, who had a successful career in business before entering the world of football, was hounded out by cries of Judas and attacks, both personal and physical.

However, he retains much of the swagger he had when he, David O'Leary and a youthful Leeds team marched across Europe and threatened to be the challengers to Manchester United for dominance in England. "The subsequent demise of Leeds United was down to poor decisions," he says of the aftermath of his departure. Ridsdale, who is brutally honest about his shortcomings in United We Fall (Pan, £7.99), his memoir of the heady days, is also candid about the fate of the club.

"I believe they would not be in this situation if I had been allowed to carry on," he says. Ridsdale says in his book: "I could not be sorrier for what has happened to that great club, and my part in the tragedy." But this is not an acceptance of all the blame for the downfall of Leeds. Ridsdale has taken the opportunity to answer his critics. But he has not demanded money for that privilege. All proceeds from a compelling book will go to a hospice.

So what went wrong? The Cardiff City chairman blames the collapse at Elland Road on buying "too many big-name players because that overloaded the wage structure, which buckled when we failed on the pitch". But he says: "In the five and a half years that I was chairman at Leeds we finished in the top five four times. I left them with a team that included Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Oliver Dacourt, Paul Robinson and other top players. Aaron Lennon and James Milner were coming through. This was not a side who should have been relegated."

He adds: "I didn't believe they appointed the right manager and questions need to be asked about decision making." Ridsdale is convinced that Eddie Gray was unsuitable for the Elland Road job.

"I was sure of the man I wanted at Leeds," says Ridsdale. "I approached Martin O'Neill three times about the job." The Northern Irishman rebuffed the overtures from Yorkshire when he was at Leicester City and twice when he was at Celtic. Ridsdale now watches O'Neill taking Aston Villa forward and wonders what might have been at Leeds. "He's an outstanding manager," says Ridsdale simply. As a chairman, he has worked with a few. O'Leary does not emerge shining from United We Fall.

Ridsdale claims he should have refused his manager funds to buy Robbie Fowler and Seth Johnson, "two deals too far". He also states that O'Leary lost the dressing room after the publication of his book, United on Trial. Peter Reid is given credit for keeping United up but Ridsdale says he should never have been given the job permanently. His summation of the Terry Venables era is biting: "It had all gone wrong under Terry. In fact, it had never gone right."

Now, though, Ridsdale has a harmonious relationship with Dave Jones at Cardiff. "I made mistakes at Leeds," he says, "but that has helped me to become a better chairman at Cardiff."

The past, however, has not dulled his ambition. "We are moving into a £48m stadium next year. We are a one-city club. More than 1.6m people live within a 30-minute drive of the stadium. The nearest geographical competition in Premiership terms is in London or in Birmingham with Aston Villa."

The club has reached a "very amicable" agreement with Langston, a company who were pursuing Cardiff for a chunk of cash. "We have no major debt," insists Ridsdale.

He adds, however, that the problem of debt can be over-stated. "If a debts are serviceable, then there is no problem. Look at Manchester United. They can service their debt with their profits. I would be more concerned about a club such as Chelsea who rely on one major beneficiary to service their debt." But Ridsdale is happy for the moment to keep Cardiff's balance sheet on an even keel. "We have invested in a measured way," he says of the club's acquisitions.

"We will take nothing for granted and will carry on doing what I believe to be right." He concedes, however, that the club was "very lucky" to secure Ross McCormack from Motherwell "at a bargain price because he was out of contract".

McCormack has helped Cardiff to seventh in the league. The dream is the Premier League. The nightmare for Ridsdale is over.