Bates said: "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."
He told The Times: "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."
Bates also dismissed the part played by Trevor Birch at Leeds too, although the former chief executive was praised for his role in keeping them from administration.
"I don't know what he did when he was here because he certainly didn't tackle the underlying problem," Bates added. "He kept things going, which as an insolvency expert was his forte, but he was well paid. He got £500,000 out of it."