Vinai Venkatesham was upbeat when he began his new job as Tottenham Hotspur chief executive last summer.
His outlook quickly changed. To say his first season in charge did not go to plan would be an understatement.
Speaking after a final-day victory over Everton clinched Tottenham's Premier League survival, Venkatesham discussed the emotional strains of a relegation battle that went to the season's closing minutes.
"It was just a huge outpouring of relief," said Venkatesham, who said that the club would not have made anyone redundant in the event of relegation.
"But obviously feeling relief at the end of the season is nowhere near the standard of the football club."
"If you'd have asked me a few months after I joined, when I was no longer an outsider, I would have told you the club was in a significantly worse state in some places than I thought," said Venkatesham.
Venkatesham's first words were praise for the supporters who he says got the team "over the line" in their relegation battle.
But he knows he will need more than words to appease supporters who have turned on him this season.
Meanwhile, Tottenham's owners the Lewis family published a statement on Wednesday in which they promised to "rebuild" and "recapture the spirit" of the club, while acknowledging that a repeat of this season "must never happen again".
"This will require investment - in our teams, the academy, our backroom functions and more - and we are fully committed to this," the statement read.
"We are not selling the club. We are all in. We are investing in it. You will see more of this in the coming months."