FC Halifax Town chairman David Bosomworth has pointed to his 'natural caution' as justification for his lengthy silence during his consortium's takeover of football at the Shay.
The Wakefield businessman has never sought the limelight and had hoped that the deal, which was first mooted almost two years ago, would be concluded quickly.
He managed to remain largely anonymous in the early days before being revealed as the leader of a consortium also containing Bobby Ham and Stuart Peacock.
And only now, a few days before the new club starts life in the Unibond League Division One North has he broken his silence.
"By nature I am a cautious character and from my point of view until a situation is crystal clear, it is hard to reveal anything about it," said Bosomworth.
"When there was talk about the identity of the people involved, my feeling was that until we got it to a point where it was a done deal it was difficult to say anything.
"If something does not materialise you do not want to be part of a group of people who were going to get involved and then disappeared into the blue yonder."
Despite funding the day-to-day running of the club, Bosomworth admitted it had been strange not to have a hands on role at the Shay.
But he appears happier in his new - and more visible - role with the re-born outfit.
"It was a very very surreal set of circumstances," he said. "Now, if good things happen - or mistakes are made - you are more than happy to hold your hand up and say we are the decision makers.
"We are not here to develop the ground, we are not here because we think Halifax will have crowds of 10,000 or 15,000, although it would be nice if it did.
"The reality is that we want to run a sound, solid business and enjoy it."
One question that has troubled Town's fans is why a man who had been a director at neighbours Bradford City had become interested in Halifax Town in the first place.
"We slowly got sucked into the scenario," said Bosomworth. "We went to the play off final and watched one or two other games and I think we felt that we could make a difference for the club.
"In terms of coming on board it was a difficult and slow process.
"It certainly took longer than it needed to and there were reasons for that.
"The culmination of that was that after taking the 10-point hit and surviving on the last day of the season, things came along and bit us at the end."
Now Bosomworth is looking forward to helping FC Halifax Town climb the footballing pyramid.
And he is hoping to attract a new generation of fans to the Shay with a range of initiatives aimed at schools and clubs.
"There are two challenges going forward," said Bosomworth. "The backing the fans give us is paramount but what we also need to see is that over a wider area of Calderdale the floating supporters come down and see what is on offer.
"We want people to be entertained. We want to put a smile back on the fans in Halifax - and that is what we are going to try to do."
- Did the consortium ever consider walking away? Find out in Wednesday's Courier Sport
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