{"id":298324,"date":"2023-11-21T23:26:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T23:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/?p=298324"},"modified":"2023-11-21T23:26:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T23:26:55","slug":"exclusive-ron-the-rat-speaks-out-after-almost-sinking-southend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/soccer\/exclusive-ron-the-rat-speaks-out-after-almost-sinking-southend\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE:\u00a0&apos;Ron the Rat&apos; speaks out after almost sinking Southend"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Fans call him Ron the Rat for almost sinking Southend&#8230; but the owner insists he always had club&#8217;s interests at heart: Condemned chairman RON MARTIN pleads his case to Mail Sport &#8211; you decide if he deserves sympathy\u00a0<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Condemned former Southend chairman Ron Martin pleads his case to Mail Sport<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He admits it&#8217;s &#8216;hurtful&#8217; that Southend are viewed as one of the worst-run clubs\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It\u2019s the world against Everton \u2013 it can galvanise the players to stay up &#8211; IAKO<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of the details of Ron Martin\u2019s recent years as owner of Southend United \u2014 the winding-up petitions, the furious fans outside his house, the toy rats thrown on the pitch at home games \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Martin effortlessly charts his 25-year rollercoaster on the Essex coast \u2014 from beating Manchester United 1-0 in the League Cup to walking down his drive to address protesters at the end of it. He wants to talk about the good times. He skates elegantly and effortlessly over the bad.<\/p>\n<p>There is a jarring incongruity about Martin being in this grand place, ordering cappuccinos and embarking on a discussion which touches on helicopter travel and his \u00a33million home, when his refusal to pay HMRC on time has seen Southend dragged repeatedly to the High Court and now docked 10 points. All that on top of being relegated to non-league for the first time in their 101-year history.<\/p>\n<p>Among many who have gone unpaid in the past year are St John Ambulance. Pressed on why he \u2018didn\u2019t pay the little people\u2019, he replies: \u2018Yes, that hurts.\u2019 Well, just imagine how they must feel.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/21\/78083475-12776957-image-m-23_1700603650550.jpg\" height=\"437\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Condemned chairman Ron Martin pleads his case \u2014 you decide if he deserves sympathy<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/21\/78083421-12776957-image-a-24_1700603715748.jpg\" height=\"365\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Southend supporters have nicknamed the chairman &#8216;Ron the Rat&#8217; for almost sinking their club<\/p>\n<p>Virtually anyone owed money by Southend has had to chase them through the courts in the past year, from sponsors to electricity providers to the water supplier. Fans raised \u00a340,000 to ensure staff were paid last Christmas, then brought cleaning equipment and paint to prepare Roots Hall for this season. No wonder Southend have been dubbed one of the worst-run clubs in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018That\u2019s really hurtful,\u2019 Martin says, reaching for that word again. \u2018It\u2019s not one of the worst-run. It might need more money than we can afford. That doesn\u2019t mean to say we didn\u2019t give the same consideration and attention to it that we would do if we had money. It\u2019s just a shortfall of funds.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Most Southend supporters, who call him \u2018Ron the Rat\u2019, would put things rather differently.<\/p>\n<p>There have been plenty of false dawns, but if all goes to plan Martin will this week sell up to a 10-strong consortium and walk away, hoping that he will be remembered as the man who has invested \u00a327million \u2014 via loans from his property company \u2014 to keep alive a club which at times has barely had a pulse.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/21\/78083411-12776957-image-a-26_1700603769497.jpg\" height=\"465\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Martin looks on as Southend take on Burton Albion in the League Two playoffs in 2014<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m less wealthy now, by a long chalk, than if I\u2019d never been involved in football,\u2019 he says. \u2018You just hope you get to a sustainable environment but you never know at the time.\u2019 Sustainable it most certainly isn\u2019t. The club and the stadium are on their knees.<\/p>\n<p>Martin considered himself a winner before all this. A remarkable image captures him at the top of a bobsleigh run with Great Britain\u2019s four-man team in Winterberg, Germany, in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>It looks like a scene from Thunderbirds, with Martin, bobsleigh driver Major Jonnie Woodall and John Howell displaying very white teeth and impressive physiques. Martin says they won their race for the \u2018GB1\u2019 team \u2014 going on to compete for Britain at the European Championships in St Moritz that year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I was first reserve for the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid,\u2019 Martin says, relaying that he had been recruited from athletics by a GB bobsleigh talent-spotter.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I had to come back from Switzerland early for business reasons, so I was placed in the \u2018GB 3\u2019 team. I regret that decision in many ways because to have competed at the Olympics would have been something. But the business mattered most.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The business also mattered most when he arrived at Southend United as a property entrepreneur in the 1990s, after the ailing club\u2019s chairman, Vic Jobson, a neighbour, had asked him for \u00a3400,000 credit.<\/p>\n<p>He rejected the request, instead acquiring half of Jobson\u2019s 55 per cent share of the club before buying him out in 1998, when his property company also bought Roots Hall from the club.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I recognised the opportunity to build a new stadium and create a much better football club than they had,\u2019 says Martin. He had never set foot in the place before that and supported Liverpool, he says, because his father had.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018When I walked into the club, it seemed stuck in the 1950s and I thought, \u201cWe could improve this massively\u201d. The whole environment was in the dark ages. We could see that we could bring more sophistication to it. I wanted to make a bigger stadium.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/78083401-12776957-image-a-52_1700605370845.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Southend have been dubbed one of the worst-run clubs in the country in recent years<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/77997399-12776957-Southend_United_stormed_to_a_surprising_2_1_win_over_National_Le-a-38_1700604912026.jpg\" height=\"426\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The club stormed to a shock 2-1 win over National League leaders Chesterfield on Saturday<\/p>\n<p>That bigger stadium has been the be-all and end-all of the past 25 years for Martin. Property was the golden egg for an \u2018investor-developer\u2019 like him. He wanted to move Southend United to land he had purchased at nearby Fossetts Farm, leaving him free to build houses on the site of Roots Hall. But despite owning both, he has tried and failed for a quarter of a century to make these property developments happen.<\/p>\n<p>Roots Hall \u2014 a stadium lovingly built in the 1950s by legendary groundsman Sid Broomfield with the entire \u00a374,000 provided by fans \u2014 fell into decline.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Southend had their moments under Martin. There were back-to-back promotions to League One and the Championship in 2005 and 2006, then the night of all nights: that 1-0 win over Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s United \u2014 Ronaldo, Rooney and all \u2014 in November 2006, sealed by Freddy Eastwood. Every wall of the Blue Boar pub beside Roots Hall is decorated with some artefact of that famous win.<\/p>\n<p>All this brought Martin a role in the Christmas lights switch-on, a friendship with club legend David Webb and journeys up and down the land with his son to watch Southend play. \u2018When you get into any club in the minutiae that I did, you have to love it,\u2019 he says. Even at that journey\u2019s height, he was trying to get the stadium built.<\/p>\n<p>Martin oozed confidence at moments which would have spooked less ebullient owners. On the occasion, for example, when his home and Roots Hall were raided by police and he was arrested on suspicion of corruption in relation to a Gloucestershire property deal in March 2007.<\/p>\n<p>A vivid 1,000-word article, beneath his byline, followed in the Southend Echo, detailing the police\u2019s 7am arrival on his \u2018shingle drive\u2019, his wife offering them beverages, and them arriving mob-handed. Martin denied any wrongdoing and was not charged.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/78083389-12776957-Southend_fans_place_a_Ron_the_Rat_picture_on_a_lamppost_near_Roo-a-62_1700605600827.jpg\" height=\"462\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Martin admits to Mail Sport that being labelled as a &#8216;lying rat&#8217; by fans is extremely hurtful<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/78083427-12776957-image-a-31_1700604109260.jpg\" height=\"476\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Martin out!&#8217;: Frustrated Southend supporters take to the streets in protest of their chairman<\/p>\n<p>Southend\u2019s one season back in the Championship ended two months later, leaving Martin to reflect on what might have been. \u2018We changed seven players in the Championship and probably had a better team spirit \u2014 a sense of \u201cwe\u2019re all in it together\u201d \u2014 in League One,\u2019 he says of that time. \u2018Maybe that was our error. We should have only changed three or four individuals.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Greater storms were to follow. There was the financial crash of 2008. \u2018Painful for everyone and because I rely on property income to supplement the football club, it was probably going to hit me worse,\u2019 Martin relates.<\/p>\n<p>Southend were relegated to League Two in 2010 and they were back in the courts, too: back to winding-up orders and transfer embargoes.<\/p>\n<p>Phil Brown led the club back up via the play-offs in 2015 before it all unravelled again. Amid six ill-fated managerial appointments from 2018 \u2014 Chris Powell, Sol Campbell and Kevin Bond among them \u2014 there were successive relegations from League One to the National League in the depths of Covid. That left Southend in non-League football with players on League One wages. And still the stadium was not built.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/78083413-12776957-image-a-35_1700604410005.jpg\" height=\"434\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>All downhill from here: Martin (top right) in the GB bobsleigh team at Winterberg in 1980<\/p>\n<p>Some owners would have bailed, but Martin says he wanted to get the club back into the Football League first. He says he received a call from one of the executives who would help Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buy Wrexham, asking if he was interested in selling.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I said no and that was it,\u2019 he says. \u2018I wasn\u2019t tempted at all because I wanted to fulfil my own objectives, create something for the fans. Leaving it then, just because someone offered more money? No, I didn\u2019t want to do that. I didn\u2019t entertain it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>It is unlikely any such deal would have transpired. The executive who approached Martin was engaged to work with Reynolds and McElhenney, and the Wrexham deal was well advanced. Extraordinary, though, that Martin, the owner of a club in such dire straits, was not even interested. The prospect of building that new stadium \u2014 the golden egg \u2014 was just too much.<\/p>\n<p>It takes an extraordinarily thick skin to stay on when supporters are disgruntled enough to throw missiles on to your driveway and scrawl images of your face in black marker-pen on balloons which they burst at games.<\/p>\n<p>For the home match against Maidenhead in September, Southend were down to 12 available players, had no fit goalkeeper, had been docked 10 points for non-payment of tax, and had appeared in magistrates\u2019 court over an unpaid energy bill. They won 2-0.<\/p>\n<p>Martin maintains his unruffled equanimity as all this is laid out before him. \u2018There wasn\u2019t enough money to go around,\u2019 he says. \u2018What are the alternatives? Put the club into administration? Or for everyone to roll with us?<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The club\u2019s losing \u00a3160,000 every month \u2014 in the National League, that\u2019s a lot to find. We ran out of money. We didn\u2019t have the money to do all the work that was required. We didn\u2019t do it deliberately. When you are in the tax authorities\u2019 focus \u2014 attacked if you like \u2014 you get no latitude, so when you go into arrears a (winding-up) petition comes quickly.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The supporters describe it as something different \u2014 incompetence \u2014 while a leading authority on tax and accountancy legislation sees a moral bankruptcy at play. \u2018Courts don\u2019t want to bankrupt clubs because they are community assets, and I suspect this owner knows that,\u2019 he said. \u2018There\u2019s a moral angle here. It\u2019s our taxes that he isn\u2019t paying.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/68364713-12776957-Several_fans_took_the_opportunity_to_protest_the_mismanagement_a-a-33_1700604300661.jpg\" height=\"407\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Several fans took the opportunity to protest the mismanagement of the club when Daily Mail photographer KEVIN QUIGLEY attended Southend&#8217;s league clash against Barnet in March<\/p>\n<p>As Southend have struggled, a fanbase led by the Shrimpers Trust have watched Martin closely. There has been much talk of him having use of a helicopter, with the club\u2019s name emblazoned on the side.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I learned to fly helicopters when I was in my 20s so I have a natural interest in them and once a year, on my wife\u2019s birthday, we go to Ascot,\u2019 Martin explains. \u2018A picture (has circulated) of me taking our two sons and their wives to Ascot on my wife\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We don\u2019t have a helicopter. You can hire helicopters and we did that every year for 40 years. The club\u2019s name on the side was an advertisement for the club.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018People outside our house wanted me to sell my home. \u201cYour house is worth \u00a33million. Why don\u2019t you sell it? Why don\u2019t you sell your car?\u201d You have to stop somewhere and that\u2019s unfair when I\u2019ve put millions into the club for a long, long time. If I was a fly-by-night, that\u2019s different, but 25 years going to every match and being as committed to the success of it as they are?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He insists he has never charged Southend rent on the stadium, despite invoicing the club for it. An insolvency lawyer, who has worked at several distressed football clubs, suggests this has tax benefits. Martin hasn\u2019t been to a Southend match since December. \u2018When there are chants of, \u201cWe want Martin out\u201d, it\u2019s going to detract from the football,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n<p>So now he will leave for good. A consortium, led by Australian IT entrepreneur Justin Rees, will acquire the club, Roots Hall\u2019s freehold and the training ground for a nominal \u00a31.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/78083407-12776957-image-a-37_1700604506242.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The angry signs of protest have extended to the roads and pavements (pictured in July 2023)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/77997335-12776957-Southend_have_been_under_a_transfer_ban_since_September_2022_and-a-39_1700604925189.jpg\" height=\"478\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Non-league outfit Southend have been under a transfer ban since September 2022 and were deducted 10 points at the start of this season after failing to clear a \u00a3275,000 HMRC debt<\/p>\n<p>It will also take on Southend\u2019s future operating costs and debts believed to be in excess of \u00a32.5m. Martin will write off his loans to the club and contribute \u00a320m to the refurbishment of Roots Hall, where the club will stay.<\/p>\n<p>As always, the club finds its future inextricably linked to property deals. Planning permission has just been granted to a company, owned by Martin\u2019s son Jack, for a substantial housing development \u2014 minus the new stadium \u2014 at Fossetts Farm. There will be 1,300 homes built, including 500 which were to have gone up at Roots Hall, had the stadium switch materialised.<\/p>\n<p>Councillors heard the club\u2019s sale was contingent on planning for the homes. \u2018We won\u2019t build the stadium and haven\u2019t got the cost of that, but we are putting the equivalent money back into Roots Hall,\u2019 Martin says. His family will do extremely well out of the deal, though.<\/p>\n<p>The protests have not affected Martin or contributed to his decision to go, he insists. \u2018It was necessary to have security at the house, but did it disrupt our lives? No. We continued the same way.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019ve tried to understand the fans\u2019 feelings but I think the narrative that has existed in recent times is no reflection on what we, as a family, have done for the club.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m selling at the wrong time for me and my family but I had no choice. I was 70 and my weekends were still committed. I was thinking, \u201cHow many years have you got to go?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The insolvency expert suggests Martin is selling because things are so bad he is in a very tight financial corner. \u2018It doesn\u2019t make sense to keep it going in that league, pumping that money in,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/78083409-12776957-image-a-36_1700604501190.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Southend are now 14th in the National League, having finished eighth in the league last season<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/21\/22\/77996517-12776957-Southend_United_face_severe_player_shortage_naming_only_two_subs-a-40_1700604967716.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Southend United face a severe player shortage, naming only two substitutes for a match<\/p>\n<p>Martin has put the National League on notice for a legal challenge against the 10-point deduction and expects the club to receive a date for that in six to eight weeks. But the squad have played their way out of difficulty. They are 14th in the table under their excellent manager, Kevin Maher, after Saturday\u2019s home win over league leaders Chesterfield.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018There were great times, such really great times,\u2019 Martin reflects as the interview draws to an end and he prepares to carry out other business in the hotel\u2019s elegant surroundings. \u2018I would do it all again. I wouldn\u2019t overlook the great times because of the people standing outside my house.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s been a tremendous ride and we\u2019ve created some tremendous memories.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The cataclysmic recent years are something that Southend fans would rather forget.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12776957\/Fans-call-Ron-Rat-sinking-Southend-owner-insists-clubs-interests-heart.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fans call him Ron the Rat for almost sinking Southend&#8230; but the owner insists he always had club&#8217;s interests at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EXCLUSIVE:\u00a0&amp;apos;Ron the Rat&amp;apos; speaks out after almost sinking Southend - All My Sports News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/soccer\/exclusive-ron-the-rat-speaks-out-after-almost-sinking-southend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE:\u00a0&amp;apos;Ron the Rat&amp;apos; speaks out after almost sinking Southend - All My Sports News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fans call him Ron the Rat for almost sinking Southend&#8230; 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