Sitting on a sofa eating a slice of sponge cake and drinking a cup of tea, Chelsea coach Dario Gradi should have felt terrible disquiet.
It was late 1975 and he was at the home of one of his youth players, who was recounting unwelcome advances he had received from the club’s chief scout, Eddie Heath, a man now known to have been a serial sexual predator.
One incident left the boy, 15-year-old Eamonn Manners, fearing for his safety.
Eamonn Manners, now 57, is the second player from the same Chelsea youth team to come forward with allegations about Heath (left, Manners as a youth player at Chelsea and right, now)
Yet despite all that was said, Chelsea took no action against Heath, an outcome that would have appalling consequences.