David Sullivan admits he is daring to dream.
The West Ham supremo has already struck gold with summer signings Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia, Cheikhou Kouyate and Alex Song – who have helped to lift the club into the top four.
Now Sullivan is moving into mainstream cinema and has targeted a double reason to celebrate even further in May.
Not only is he hopeful that West Ham will cause a shock by finishing in the Champions League places, he is also excited about the release of the film he is part-financing – The Rise of the Krays – also due to be released that month.
“I think we are all daring to dream,” he said. “Sam Allardyce has got the team playing superbly.
“As for the film? Well, all my life I’ve loved gangster movies.
“I can go back to The Long Good Friday, Gangster No.1 and my favourite, Get Carter. Well this movie is in that mould and I hope every bit as good.
“Ronnie and Reggie are East End legends, but we wanted to tell the real story. Not just the myths. It’s a challenge, but it’s an exciting challenge.
“It’s a full-length feature film. Eight-week shoot, £3million budget and comes out in May. It is a lot of money, but we haven’t spent a fortune on artists.
“We’ve got two young guys, Simon Cotton and Kevin Leslie, to play Ronnie and Reggie, and they are just sensational.
“My Dad, every lunchtime, used to drink with the Krays’ mum. I’ve got my own experience as well.
“When I started in business, I was in the adult entertainment business and we used to sell mail order. We used to get a percentage of cheques that bounced. So I used to write them a letter saying: ‘I’m very sorry, your cheque has bounced sir. I’m sure this is a terrible mistake. We don’t want any grief. Could you send us a new cheque or a postal order?’”
“And I signed it – Sidney Kray. They were banged up at the time and I thought it would just give me a little bit of an extra edge.
“Well surprise, surprise, Reggie writes to me from Leicester prison saying: ‘How dare you use our family name! There is only one Kray family.’
“Fortunately, I went on to have a long correspondence with him. But I did think at the time: ‘I’d better be careful otherwise when he comes out he might want half the business!’”