For 24 years Daniel Levy held a firm grip on Tottenham Hotspur and for the first time this week he has spoken about what has transpired since his ousting.
In September last year, the now 64-year-old was removed from his role after a review into the club, instigated by the owning Lewis family. While Levy remains a big shareholder in Spurs, with his portion being 29.88% of ENIC's 87.62% share of the club he has been left with a minority voice.
For the first time since walking out through the club door, Levy spoke publicly this week in short interviews with media outside Windsor Castle after being made a CBE by the Prince of Wales for his services to the community in Tottenham through charity, supporting education, health, social inclusion and creating jobs, all via the construction of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Talk of course soon turned to Spurs' current plight as they sit two points above the relegation zone and with matches at Chelsea and at home to Everton to decide whether a club that was Champions League finalists just seven years ago and won a Europa League trophy last summer, will even be a Premier League team next season.
Levy was asked by media outlets such as PA and ITV whether he envisaged the club being in a relegation battle and he told both: "Never, no, not in a million years."
When asked how he felt about the club's position in the table, he simply said: "Emptiness… but I’m optimistic that we will remain in the Premier League."
He added: "I could never envisage this at the beginning of the season. Obviously, incredibly disappointed. But let’s look forward and very much hope that next season we’re still in the Premier League.
"I’m feeling the pain but I’m optimistic that we will get through it. It’s been very, very difficult [watching it] but Spurs is in my blood and I’m hopeful we will be OK in the end."
He told ITV News that he still watched "every match" and that a loss "ruins the whole weekend" before saying: "I'm optimistic that we will remain in the Premier League. I think Tottenham has a great coach, and all the fans and all the employees and everyone now is behind this coach… Let’s hope that the players can do it for the last two games."
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Levy also shared his conversation with Prince William while receiving his CBE: "I thanked him for allowing us to beat Aston Villa when we played them a few weeks ago. He wished us luck for the rest of the season, very much hoping that Tottenham survive in the Premier League."
When asked for the highlights of his tenure at Spurs, he said: "I was there for over 24 years and we had so many memorable occasions, the Champions League final, early on, being in Europe many years, opening the stadium, there have been so many achievements."
The former Spurs chairman admitted that he was unable to achieve some of his ambitions during his time in north London: "What I would have hoped for is winning the Premier League, winning the Champions League, which was easier said than done."
For Tottenham supporters, listening to Levy speaking about the club will bring some strange feelings. For much of his tenure, he was a figure of criticism for many, the prudent leader seen as holding Spurs back from achieving those very things he declared he wanted.
Yet, if there's one thing that even many of his fiercest critics would give him in this situation, it's that Tottenham would not currently be where they are right now under him, for Levy would have pulled the plug on the Thomas Frank experiment the moment the fanbase made it clear they did not want the Dane. He would also have been unlikely to have appointed Igor Tudor as his replacement, judging by comments Harry Redknapp made about a phone conversation with the former Spurs supremo.
However, that's not to excuse Levy for his part in the mess that Tottenham have become. He brought in everyone that has been associated with this disastrous season, whether that's CEO Vinai Venkatesham, sporting director Johan Lange and the bewildering managerial process that landed upon Frank as the perfect head coach to replace Ange Postecoglou.
It was also Levy who had a strong relationship with Fabio Paratici and sparked the strange on and off again dalliance between the club and the Italian, now back in his homeland at Fiorentina.
Levy was also at the helm for the failed transfer moves for Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze last summer, albeit the former was beyond anyone's control.
There is also the long-term aspect of the prudence at Tottenham that kept them financially stable but also created a culture where winning the top prizes never truly felt like the ultimate aim, more a hope if possible. Players soon grew disillusioned, the club's record goalscorer Harry Kane was lost as he knew he was never going to realise what he deserved and managers came and went like London buses, unable to recreate what they did elsewhere within the environment at Spurs.
There's no doubting the quality of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium or the Hotspur Way training complex, even if some coaches have complained that the latter is too nice, too comfortable to be a working environment to forge winners. It's been seen as more of a five-star hotel complex than a conveyor belt for sporting success, with some of football aspects and facilities within it needing the impending improvement to take it beyond the surface aesthetic levels.
So yes Spurs would unlikely have fallen this far under Levy, but other than Mauricio Pochettino's years spent punching above the club's weight or Postecoglou's trophy, they never looked like rising beyond the stadium's glass ceiling.
Most ousted employees would raise a smile privately at things falling apart after their exit, but for Levy it probably stings to see what he feels he built tumbling, and also financially he would be affected by relegation as share prices likely fall.
So this appearance from the former chairman, honoured for very worthy improvements to the local community, will hit Tottenham Hotspur supporters in different ways. Some will blame him, some might even miss him but that was Daniel Levy in a nutshell, someone who did and will always divide opinion.