Lord Burns has only been to Marks & Spencer's Paddington offices once, so he has not yet established whether any of its offices have a direct view over the Loftus Road grounds of Queens Park Rangers. But he would have to work hard to find a company whose offices were closer to his favourite team.
He lists more conventional reasons for taking up the chairmanship of Britain's most famous retailer than proximity to QPR. 'It has a very prominent position on the high street, loyal customers and a good brand position. It has got challenges, but that is what makes it interesting.'
One of the immediate challenges is patching up the boardroom splits surrounding his appointment: chief executive Stuart Rose was determined that Paul Myners should stay in the post while Kevin Lomax, the non-executive in charge of the search - whose relationship with Myners can best be described as frosty - wanted an outsider. While Burns's appointment looks like a victory for Lomax, he will not take up the post until July 2006, although he will join the board as deputy chairman in October, giving Myners the two years he wanted to demonstrate that he and Rose can turn the business around.
With a diplomacy honed by 18 years in the civil service - he was Permanent Secretary to the Treasury by the time he left in 1998 - he says: 'It is always better when things are functioning well. But I would hope that, now the succession has been settled, it will function better. One thing I hope to bring to the show is the ability to settle the board down and ensure it does work well.'
He has plenty of experience in what to do if it does not return to functioning well. No sooner had he been appointed chairman of Abbey banking group than he ousted Ian Harley as chief executive and brought in Luqman Arnold. He will not be drawn on whether any changes will be required at M&S: 'My experience of boards is that they are in a constant state of flux because people can only serve for a certain number of years.'
He dismisses suggestions that Myners will be a 'lame duck' chairman for the next year: 'Non-executives are not like executives, where there is a long run-down period and [becoming a lame duck] does become a problem.'
The timing of his arrival on the board was, he says, his decision: he told the headhunters that he would not be available until the autumn because the review of the Football Association that he is conducting will not be finished until at the end of July and he likes to take August off, dividing his time between his house in the Brecon Beacons and trips elsewhere.
That underlines how busy he is: as well as the football review, he chairs Abbey and is a non-executive of Grupo Santander, the Spanish bank which recently acquired it. He is also chairman of Glas Cymru, the Welsh water company, and a non-executive director at British Land and at Pearson, where he is leading the search for a successor to chairman Lord Stevenson.
At Pearson, he is putting together a list of candidates and says he would like the issue to be resolved sooner rather than later. 'But search is search - look how long it has taken to fill the post here [at M&S].'
While he admits that he will have to drop some of his other activities, he is not saying which: 'I have got to think about it and talk to people.'
His wide experience of boardrooms has not, so far, included a retailer, but he is confident that will not be a handicap. 'I have done a lot of things in my life where I did not start with big expertise.'
He will use his long lead-time to improve his knowledge of the sector - he is already an M&S shopper - and adds: 'The job of the chairman is not to be a retail expert. It is about running a good board which functions well.'
As well as football, 58-year-old Burns likes golf and doing 'a bit' of walking in the Welsh hills.
