As Southend face 18th winding-up petition, is there hope for the future?

P eeling from a boarded-up building outside Roots Hall is an old poster. It shows a glimpse of a possible future, the image that of a grand white stadium with a sweeping concourse and fans chatting before the match. Underneath there is a line that reads “making Southend proud” and above, the slogan “Bring it on!” Once perhaps an exclamation of joy, it now reads like desperation.

On Wednesday Southend United face a winding-up petition in the high court, the result of unpaid taxes to HM Revenue & Customs. It marks the 18th such petition in the 25 years that the chairman, Ron Martin, has owned the club and it is hardly their only problem. Staff have gone unpaid, fans have lent money that remains unreturned, the club is up for sale and in 2021 the Shrimpers were relegated from the Football League for the first time in 100 years. They remain in the fifth tier.

“Previous experience suggests there will likely be enough evidence submitted for an adjournment of the petition,” says Robert Craven of the Shrimpers Trust, who has experienced more of these moments than likely is healthy. “But it’s also easy to be blase and personally I am quite fearful. There’s only so long you can keep treating people like Ron Martin does.”

Southend are hardly the only English football club facing uncertainty, Wigan and Charlton being just two more prominent examples. On the surface, Southend’s story is also a familiar one. An owner who bought the club and made grand promises of a new stadium, with an equally aspirational training ground alongside. It was a package that would take the Shrimpers to the next level, it was argued, but decades later it has yet to arrive. Now, for the owner, the costs of running a club appear to have outweighed its