💬 Lee Martin: "I’m delighted, as soon as I spoke to the manager he sold it to me"

Exeter City midfielder Lee Martin says it was the ambition shown to him by Matt Taylor that helped convince him to join the club.

The 31-year-old became the Grecians’ sixth summer signing and is another player who has experience of playing a large number of games throughout the Football League.

Lee departed Gillingham at the end of last season and spoke glowingly about how he had been convinced to make the move to St James Park.

He said: “I’m delighted, as soon as I spoke to the manager he sold it to me. I spoke to a couple of the guys who have played with him, and I’ve played against him as well previously, so there have been nothing but good reviews."

And when asked how manager Matt Taylor sold the club to him, Lee revealed that he was drawn by the ambition at the club.

He continued: “The ambition, really, where he (Matt Taylor) wants to go and the personnel. I’ve only been here a short period of time and I’m impressed with the standard and I feel we’ve got what it takes to get to the next level.”

Lee was captain at Gillingham last season and has also turned out for the likes of Manchester United as a youngster, as well as spending time at Ipswich Town and Millwall and he is hoping that those experiences can benefit the City dressing room.

“I’d like to think so, obviously I was captain last year with Gillingham which was something I had to grow into and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve got a lot of games and experiences so hopefully I can help out the younger teammates.

“I would have said no (to being a good leader) at the start of last season but it’s something that, until you get the opportunity, you don’t know until you’re there. I think I passed with flying colours, we did really well towards the latter stages of last year and we were right down there 11 games in, so I think as captain I think I did everything I could last year.”

Lee also played a small part in helping Northampton Town to promotion from League Two in the 2015/16 season as he joined on loan from Millwall for the second half of the campaign.

He said: “I was only in League Two briefly, I didn’t really go to too many places, but I liked playing in the league. I played 10 games and helped get a team promoted last time so hopefully, after playing a lot more minutes, the same can happen here.”