Still feels surreal how delusional he is.
"Yes Carlo, I know you've won literally everything and you clearly think you know how a good football club should be ran and how we should deal with transfers, but I don't think you have my experience in it."
It's very much a case of he wanted to be the star of his own show. He lived in his own little fantasy land and believed in fairy tales. He was utterly spoiled by
Moyes and his ability to extract the maximum out of limited players for small fees. The perfect rags to riches story, the underdog slugging it out with the old top 4 despite a fraction of the resources.
His incompetence and failure to progress the club was greatly exposed after Martinez's first season, again, something he personally rode the wave of positivity when presented with the opportunity; "What a manager" etc. He never missed an opportunity to shove his grid in front of the cameras, making it all about him and the decisions he made for his absolute adoration of the club. 'His' club. He was similar with the whole Moshiri saga before the wheels swirled off in to the distance.
I'll always remember a conversation I had about him once. I was living in London and one of my housemates was involved in theatre and had a friend who had worked with him. She said that he was absolutely ruthless and a really unpleasant man when angry. From that point on it was easier to see through the disguise. He was a theatre man, after all.
I would never say that I was glad, or even remotely pleased at the recent news of his passing, but I was slightly surprised by how apathetic and almost relieved I felt.