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Ridsdale, who resigned in 2003 in the face of massive supporter unrest at United's crippling debts, is adamant that the club's seemingly inevitable relegation to Coca-Cola League One could have been avoided.
A home draw with Ipswich on Saturday, coupled with Hull's win at Cardiff, means that barring a miraculous sequence of events they will be playing in football's third tier for the first time in their history when next season begins.
But Ridsdale said: "I actually believe that had I been allowed to stay around - and it was my decision to go, but clearly the pressure was such from our supporters that I couldn't take any more - I don't believe that Leeds would be in the situation they are in now."
He added: "In the end, after five very successful years, it started to go wrong, but it's gone far more wrong since I left than it did while I was there."
Ridsdale did admit that he he allowed too many players to be brought in during his time at Elland Road.
The 55-year-old spent almost six years in charge at Leeds, during which time the club enjoyed the greatest on-field success in their recent history.
Most famously, United reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2001, but just three years later they were relegated from the Premiership, saddled with huge debts.
Ridsdale received much of the criticism for allowing the Yorkshire club's finances to deteriorate, and he admits he would be more careful with the purse strings given his time again.
In particular, the current Cardiff chairman wishes he had not allowed then manager David O'Leary to spend so lavishly on talent.
"I regret a number of things we did. I think I said 'yes' too often to the manager - we bought too many quality players," he told BBC Radio 4's 'On the Ropes' programme, in an interview broadcast this morning.
"We had too many players who felt they should have been in the team every week who couldn't get in the team because we'd got 24 international players.
"Looking back, I would do things differently. I would challenge the manager more, run things tighter.
"I still don't regret taking the amount of debt on we did but I regret spending the amount of money on footballers.
"We did buy too many and the manager, every time he said he wanted a footballer, we said yes. We should have said no."