Some of the details of Ron Martin’s recent years as owner of Southend United — the winding-up petitions, the furious fans outside his house, the toy rats thrown on the pitch at home games — are such that you instinctively want to lower your voice when discussing them with him in the library of the five-star London hotel where he asks that we meet.
Martin does not seem overly concerned about discretion, though. A man in the corner of the room feigns indifference to our conversation but he does not leave his sofa once. And little wonder.
Martin effortlessly charts his 25-year rollercoaster on the Essex coast — from beating Manchester United 1-0 in the League Cup to walking down his drive to address protesters at the end of it.