Peter Ridsdale was accused last night of trying to entice Martin O’Neill to Leeds United under false pretences as the Aston Villa manager, moved to protect his integrity, claimed that he had been manipulated into signing a “statement of intent” while he was at Celtic. O’Neill said that it was “absolutely and utterly not true” that the only reason he did not take over as Leeds manager in 2003 was because Ridsdale had stepped down as chairman at Elland Road.

Ridsdale, known as “Publicity Pete” during his reign at Leeds, claimed in this week’s serialisation of his forthcoming book that he had O’Neill signed up to succeed Terry Venables.

In fact, the Villa manager, who was entitled to speak to potential employers because he had entered the final six months of his initial three-year contract with Celtic, had put his name to a statement of intent that included several dubious conditions.

This was Ridsdale’s third attempt to lure O’Neill to Elland Road and the former Leicester City manager said it was partly his suitor’s “desperation” to prove to the Leeds board that he had a hope of landing their long-term target that persuaded him to sign a nonbinding letter.

O’Neill, miffed that Celtic had not moved earlier to offer him a new deal despite winning successive league titles and staying in Europe beyond Christmas for the first time in 26 years, discovered that “what Peter had said had not stacked up”. He signed a new one-year rolling contract at Celtic Park the same month and led the Scottish champions to the Uefa Cup final, staying a further two years until his wife’s deteriorating health led him to take a year out of the game.

Angered by claims that besmirch his reputation for loyalty, O’Neill said: “Peter had wanted me to be manager a couple of times. In 1998, when Mr [John] Elsom [then Leicester City chairman] wouldn’t give me permission to speak to Leeds and then again in the summer of 2002, when David [O’Leary] left. Peter felt he had Celtic’s permission to speak to me, but when I spoke to Dermot Desmond [the Celtic majority shareholder] he said that wasn’t the case.

“I’d signed a three-year contract at Celtic and into the last few months of that contract, when there had been no discussions about a new deal, I assumed Celtic wanted me to see my time through. So I was within my rights to speak to somebody and went to meet Peter.

“I signed a statement of intent which included quite a number of conditions. One was that Peter told me Terry, the manager at the time, wanted to leave. It was not a contract. Peter was pleading that he needed a signature indicating a serious intent and, of course, there had to be because I had to see if I had the potential to be working after June 30, 2003. When I realised that what Peter had said to me had not stacked up, when I spoke to Dermot and realised Celtic didn’t actually want me to leave and that the conditions were not being adhered to, I wrote to Peter and left it there.”

Ridsdale’s version of events has upset Celtic supporters, who perceive that O’Neill was plotting a way back into English football, but their former manager confirmed that he was intent simply on discovering his options and was soon disturbed to discover Leeds was not going to be among them. “I spoke to Terry and I found out that he was not thinking about leaving,” O’Neill said. “I did not want to leave Celtic, I loved the football club, but I was a bit disappointed that in the third year of my contract that they had not moved sooner to prolong the deal.”

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