Depressed by that man in awful tale having seen better days
I believe the answer is:
down-at-heel
'seen better days' is the definition.
The answer and definition are different parts of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs sometimes define each other.
'depressed by that man in awful tale' is the wordplay.
'depressed' becomes 'down' ('down' can be a synonym of 'depressed').
'by' becomes 'at'.
'that man in awful tale' becomes 'heel' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'down'+'at'+'heel'='DOWN-AT-HEEL'
'having' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for down-at-heel that I've seen before include "Having a poor, shabby appearance" , "In poor circumstances" , "Generally shabby" , "Looking shabby" .)