BLUES chairman Ron Martin speaks to Echosport's Chris Phillips during the second part of an exclusive interview following the club's relegation to League Two.

CP: Do you now regret selling top goalscorer Lee Barnard to Southampton during the January transfer window?

RM: “In the week or two leading up to Lee going, Steve Tilson said to me that he was not working as hard in training and knowing that it was clear the player wanted to go.

“We knew he wanted to leave months before because he would not sign a new contract. “If we had refused for him to go to Leeds or Southampton then would he have been working hard for us and would he have made difference to our future?

“It could have ended up like Jermaine Beckford at Leeds where he has been getting stick off their fans who feel he hasn’t been trying.

“Lee would also certainly have walked at end of season so to get some money in for him was sound a business proposition.

“But there have been other players who have come in to the club and left and we haven’t benefited from them in the way we thought we might.

“Billy Paynter we paid £200,000 for and got half back but this year he has scored 26 goals.

“Gary Hooper has gone on to score 20 goals in the Championship and Charlie MacDonald has 17 at Brentford.

“There have been players who have also left and dearly cost the club.”

CP: Another big departure this season was assistant manager Paul Brush. Do you still feel it was the right decision to get rid of him?

RM: “On a personal basis I really liked Paul and we got on very well.

“However, I think Paul was not the happiest around the place, although when a team is not being very successful that sometimes happens.

“I think that at the time we needed to maintain team spirit and Steve Tilson generally has a smile on his face.

“I also was not sure who was making the decisions as we had a revolving door with players and if someone was not living up to expectations then the thought was let’s get rid of them and that’s bad for business.

“When Paul left he said to me you are making the wrong decision.

“I asked him what I should be doing and he hesitated and said get a striker.

“By that time we had already used 10 different strikers and it seemed to be a case of if one isn’t good enough lets get another.

“You cannot support that regime and expect the team to exist financially.

“I have been very supportive to Steve and don’t really remember ever saying no.

“In January, we thought Theo Robinson was going to join and we also went for Kandol at Leeds.

“That was an expensive move but neither of the deals went through.

“Kandol thought his future lay at Leeds and changed his mind after a slight injury while “Theo would’ve come but the move relied on Huddersfield getting a player on loan from a Premier League team and that never happened.”

CP: Paul was replaced by David Webb, but he hasn’t been at a game since the middle of March.

What’s the situation there?

“David is someone Steve can look to without being in competition with.

“He played for David when he was manager and personally respected him.

“I don’t think David could contribute in a modern way to the training regime we adopt at Southend.

“But he was more of person to bounce ideas off and has been at end of telephone when needed.

“He’s never been an assistant manager as such but is more of an additional mentor.”

CP: Are there now likely to be other departures on the playing side of things?

RM: “I know Steve is talking to players now about their futures and that started before the weekend.

“We won’t stand in any player’s way.

“We recognise this is a period when we will have to bring in players and that is what we will do.

“Some of our players are also on significant wages.

“I remember when we won League One Paul Brush said to me would it be possible to bring in four or five players on £2,000 a week and that has quickly become the norm in this club.

“A number of our players are on £2,000 and we’ve had some on a great deal more than that but that’s not a salary one can afford in League Two.”

CP: There is also the wage cap to think about at that level. How will that affect things?

RM: “It will make an impact but we will be able to work around that.

“We’re in the top eight to 10 highest payers in League One now so you would think we will be top of League Two.

“The wage bill will be reduced by natural wastage but the most important thing I want to achieve is team spirit and continuity.

“We haven’t had that recently and it’s extremely important for the manager and me as chairman.

“Also for five years now we’ve started a youth operation to move to an academy which has been very successful.

“We’ve started to see the fruits of this and it’s important for a club of this size to bring home grown players onto the pitch.

“I thought Harry Crawford made a big difference on Saturday and we’ve also had Johnny Herd, Franck Moussa and Stuart O’Keefe involved this season.

“It would be Utopia to have 11 home grown players on the pitch.”