Within 10 minutes of meeting John Henry for the first time, alarm bells started ringing. We’d exchanged pleasantries and were sitting alone in his suite at Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox baseball team he owns, on a colourless November afternoon in Boston.

Settled into our plush leather chairs overlooking home plate, we were enveloped by walls displaying a gallery of rich memories: trophy celebrations for the Sox and the English Premier League football club Liverpool, also owned by Henry’s Fenway Sports Group (FSG); a joyous snap at a World Series parade with his wife Linda and Boston icon David “Big Papi” Ortiz; Henry’s two youngest children grinning along the first-base line, just yards away.

Financial Times