IT’S BEEN a two-year transition from chairman back to fan for Julian Rhodes.

His frustration over City’s defeat at Southend last week could be instantly eased by switching off the TV screen. There was no weekend spent fretting over the impact of a poor performance and shouting at the kids.

But it’s still not the same as the carefree days before he became a club owner because he knows full well what Edin Rahic will have gone through. He walked a long time in those shoes.

“You go from not really having a care in the world then you become chairman,” said Rhodes. “You’ve got money resting on it and it’s very hard to enjoy the games.

“It’s only once in a lifetime you get a Villa away or a Chelsea. The rest of it is just non-stop pressure and looking at how you’re going to be paying the bills or worrying if a player gets injured.

“You’ve got nearly 20,000 customers there at home games and you’re hoping they are having a good time and that there’s going to be no accidents.

“All sorts go through your mind and watching games can be a stressful period. It’s all about the result.

“I think people need to appreciate that pressure with Edin.”

Rhodes has kept an even lower profile than before since ending his ownership tenure with Mark Lawn when they sold the club to Rahic and Stefan Rupp in May 2016.

Rahic has come in for growing criticism since sacking Stuart McCall in February and the plummeting form through the rest of last season. Appointing the unproven Michael Collins in the summer stirred up more controversy.

But Rhodes feels the critics should cut Rahic some slack. He has been there.

“Whatever Edin’s done or hasn’t done, they’ve just got to bear in mind the pressure he’s under.

“He’s moved his family over, he’s from a foreign country, it must be enormous for him.

“I don’t know the ins and outs behind the scenes. But you look at the last few weeks, they’ve gone out the cup against Macclesfield, they’ve had the Tyrell Robinson business and Edin will be stressing about money.

“You’ve sold your season-tickets and know roughly what you’re going to get in gate income and sponsorship money.

“The extra income comes then from the cup or sale of players.

“But we’ve gone out of a cup where you’ve got the best chance of progressing and making a few quid. And the main saleable asset has got arrested – it’s a terrible night.

“Then you get a poor result at Southend. So, I’m sure Edin didn’t enjoy one minute of Tuesday night’s game until the final whistle.

“We had some exceptionally bad years when it was all about trying to keep the club afloat. But even when things levelled out, you needed to have a cup run or sell a player.

“I know Edin has got Stefan behind him – and he’s got a lot more money than the rest of us. But it’s still very stressful.”

In a strange way, Rhodes admitted to missing that pressure in the first season after selling up. He did look at other clubs – but has no interest now.

“I didn’t really have an appetite for going back into a mess elsewhere,” he laughed.

“I can watch games now as I used to 20-odd years ago – and it’s a damn sight more enjoyable.

“But it will never go back to how it was because I’ll always have that connection.

“I still talk to Edin and we had lunch the other week. I genuinely want it to work for him.”

Rhodes is also hopeful the “brave” choice of Collins in charge will pay off.

“Most of these managers out there have failed somewhere so why not give him an opportunity.

“People say he’s a cheap appointment but you can see Edin and Stefan have got as much money out on the park as they possibly can.

“I would always prefer to see that than a load of money in the dug-out. We’ve had so-called established managers and it’s not worked out.

“When Phil (Parkinson) was appointed, there weren’t many people jumping up and down – and they weren’t after six months.

“It was only a year or two later, they started to realise how well he was doing for us. Some still didn’t warm to him to the end but that’s football. Everyone thinks they know best and that’s the beauty of it.”