Southend United chairman Ron Martin is not particularly popular with many Shrimpers fans, but his latest interview is set to make him even more unpopular in the wider game.
He’s claimed in an interview with TalkSport that the current season should be voided and started again, which isn’t a huge surprise given where his team currently reside in the table.
Like Karren Brady yesterday, it isn’t a popular call for someone to make, not least a team struggling against the drop. The EFL even asked for cool heads and calm reflection during these testing times, not the sort of scaremongering that Martin has delivered today.
“If the season was extended for a couple of months it has a knock-on effect for next season and then when does it stop?” he asked. “That’s the reason why it makes good sense to draw a line under it now and say it’s the end before starting the new season afresh in.”
A reprieve would certainly suit Southend, who have struggled against the drop since the very first game of the season, with many of his own supporters believing he’s been preparing the club for League Two since a ball was first kicked. However, Martin believes that people would eventually see the rationale behind a void season.
“If it’s null and void then people could look at it and see it’s an unprecedented position so unprecedented steps were taken and the season was cancelled. I think people could understand that rationale.”
Whilst he feels people might understand, a group of his own supporters have responded on social media suggesting this is just another instance of him treating supporters ‘like idiots’.
https://twitter.com/WhiffenSteve/status/1239895599119585282
https://twitter.com/beardysocialist/status/1239895311016919040
https://twitter.com/beardysocialist/status/1239896038862917632
https://twitter.com/_KieranStaggs_/status/1239893776623120386
https://twitter.com/naad63/status/1239900929912115200
https://twitter.com/TidburyG/status/1239937195638743050
https://twitter.com/TonyRAgg/status/1239897973280198658
https://twitter.com/joeclark_11/status/1239914896567001089
https://twitter.com/1970jaya/status/1239942960986435584
https://twitter.com/Manleyst/status/1239895858247864322
