Some interviews stay with you longer than others. It’s Wednesday evening in London, and I am walking towards the Tube at Tower Hill with Dave, a friend from the office. We’ve been talking about work, and the war, and whether Arsenal will beat Valencia, when I inquire, out of the blue, if he has ever watched porn on the internet? “No,” he replies, a split-second after his eyes betray him. “Well,” he concedes, “at least not to any great degree.”

“What does that mean?” I smile.

“Sometimes you get these freaks sending you e-mails?” “And?” “Well, I’ve opened one or two out of curiosity.”

“So the answer is yes?” “The answer is yes. Why do you ask?” “I’ve just been wondering what Tony Adams saw when he asked me that question,” I explain.

Like Dave, I hadn’t seen it coming.

Adams and I had met for lunch at the Conrad Hotel in Chelsea and spent the first 10 minutes easing into the interview with a gentle discussion on how he had spent his morning . . .

08:00 Breakfast: Cereal (Alpen), toast, Earl Grey tea with no milk.

08:30 Drops off his eight-year-old daughter, Amber, at school and sets off for university.

09:30 Arrives at Brunel University.

10:00 Begins first lecture: Biomechanics (Newton’s second law).

10:01 Makes copious notes (he has an exam next week).

12:00 Finishes lectures, drives back to his girlfriend Polly’s Chelsea apartment.

13:00 Interview with The Sunday Times . . . when we suddenly began to drift into uncharted waters.

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