Bolton Wanderers chairman Phil Gartside admits he was ready to give the game away before the arrival of Owen Coyle.
Coyle, 44, has been the perfect boss for Bolton and their long-suffering chairman.
The place had turned nasty, with fans blaming the man at the helm for losing Sam Allardyce and replacing him with Sammy Lee and Gary Megson.
Gartside told the People: "I had lost my love for it. I think a lot of Bolton Wanderers fans had, too. We had gone through a time of success, playing in Europe, and trying to get that back was very difficult.
"We lost a lot of season ticket holders along the way. If we hadn't brought Owen back I don't know where we would have ended up. I had lost my appetite and motivation.
"It was hard at the best of times, like drawing with Bayern Munich, winning in Red Star Belgrade, beating Atletico Madrid.
"It was an absolute nightmare at the worst of times.
"I was getting hate mail, somebody put my address and phone number on the internet, and I would get calls in the middle of the night. I had to put the police on to it.
"After one game I stayed at the club for a function and came back to find we had been burgled and one of the cars had been stolen. I was on the cusp of saying 'sod this'."
