During his five-year tenure as chief executive of the Foxes he experienced a roller-coaster of emotions as City's fortunes rose and dipped on and off the field.

You sense Tim, who lives at Knossington, still misses being involved in the maelstrom of the football world almost a year after he left the club.

He has just been elected chairman of Oakham Tennis Club and hopes to use some of the lessons he learned at the Walkers Stadium to benefit the tennis players of Rutland.

Tim (45) chuckles when he remembers the crazy moment when he decided to get involved at Leicester City back in early 2003.

The famous old club had gone into administration and Tim, being an accountant by profession and a passionate Foxes supporter, thought he could help rescue them from going bust.

"I decided to buy the club over drinks with friends," he recalled.

"The next day I phoned up the club and asked for a set of accounts and I spoke to people I knew in the City for some financial backing. It all moved very quickly."

When Tim heard that former Leicester and England legend Gary Lineker had also put together a consortium he set about merging the two bids.

Cash was injected by 45 local investors, including ex-players such as Lineker and Emile Heskey, as well as fans through the Foxes Trust.

"There is no doubt we saved the club from going under," said Tim. "The club could not pay its bills at the time and it was very close to going bust.

"We had to raise about £5million to keep City going and we were still raising money at lunchtime on the day we had to get all the funds in by.

"It was a difficult time to take over because we inherited a large wage bill and the money from season ticket sales had already been received and used.

"We budgeted to make a £6million loss in the first three or four months of operation."

Fortunately, Leicester won promotion back to the Premiership that first season under Tim and his colleagues. The multi-million pound rewards of going back to the top flight were enough to stabilise the Foxes' finances.

"The victory over Brighton which got us promoted back to the Premiership was one of the highlights of my time there," said Tim. "I can also remember us beating Leeds United 4-0 on my birthday, which was another great day."

Tim found himself on the front pages of national newspapers, as well as on television news bulletins, when three City players were falsely accused of sexually assaulting women while they were at a training camp at La Manga in Spain in November 2004.

Three players were arrested and detained by police before eventually being released without charge after Tim had mediated with the authorities.

"It was a very difficult situation for the club when you have players accused of something they didn't do and yet the national and international press were assuming they were guilty," recalled Tim.

"The players were very, very concerned about what would happen to them but after about a week-and-a-half it became clear that they were not guilty."

One of Tim's biggest regrets during his time at the club was not being able to clinch a deal where Leicester Tigers rugby club shared City's stadium.

He believes both clubs would have benefited financially but Tigers decided to stay at their Welford Road ground, although they are now planning a new stadium.

"It was my idea and twice it came very close to happening," said Tim. "We had this new stadium which would only be used 23 times a season but I thought if we could double that usage with the Tigers playing home games there it would be great for both of us.

"Tigers can only get 16,000 crowds and they would have been able to double those gates at the Walkers Stadium.

"We have a situation where two big clubs have stadiums 500 yards apart which doesn't make much sense."

Tim stepped down from his post last January and since then, of course, the club has dropped from the Championship to the third tier of English football for the first time in their history.

City have topped the League One table in recent weeks and Tim enjoys cheering them on from the stands now.

He said: "I go to the games with my family and it is a bit more relaxed now. Milan (Mandaric, the owner) and the team are doing a great job and long may it continue."

When Tim was growing up it appeared he was more likely to make his name in tennis.

He became a professional based in Hong Kong but admits he 'played very badly for a living'.

"I started playing tennis when I was very young," recalled Tim. "I grew up in Drayton, near Market Harborough, and my parents had a court.

"I also used to hit a ball up against a breeze block wall. I played in a few tournaments but I wasn't good enough to make a career from it."

He became an accountant, owning his own practice at one stage, before getting involved in football.

Tim is now committed to helping develop Oakham Tennis Club. He believes it needs to move to a new site with better facilities and the club should also attract more people to play the sport.

He added: "I have got involved as chairman because I am slightly less busy than I have been in recent years. I want to give something back to tennis and to sport in general."