Orange man Sturrock: 'My brain is not affected in any way'
You've always got to admire a national newspaper that calls Southend a 'South Coast playground', even when it is the Sunday Express, and even when it reports that Shrimpers boss Paul Sturrock has spent a decade fighting Parkinson's Disease.
If working with chairman Ron Martin wasn't bad enough!
Anyway, it seems that the report on www.dailyexpress.co.uk is old stuff, (surprise, surprise), and most of it was was from an article written in the Scottish Daily Record way back on April 16th!
Being a former Scottish international and still very popular in the United half of Dundee, (a feeling obviously recuperated as it's rumoured Paul has his bedroom painted in Orange!), the Record is far more likely a paper he would turn to when out of a job after being sacked by Plymouth last December.
Even so, it is true he struggles to get a full night's sleep in, then again so do plenty of others in the football game, and can feel tired during the day, as do plenty of others in all walks of life, as for the occasional slur in his speech, well, we've all certainly had that!
Paul has been very open about having a mild form of Parkinson's, a progressive disease of the central nervous system.
Sturrock does suffer a flick in his left foot and an occasional shake in his left arm, but has still won promotion with three other clubs while having the illness, and plans to do it all over again this season with the Shrimpers.
Oh Paul mate, in our current mess, that's much harder!
He told www.dailyrecord.co.uk back then: "I have a great life and my brain is not affected in any way. There's no way I'm retiring or just curling up in a ball. I'm ready for anything. You're not a manager for football clubs for 10 years and gain promotions if you are a sick man. I want people in Plymouth, Britain and the world to realise that I am not an invalid."
Sturrock, known as Luggy, he has big ears you know, also told the paper that his symptoms can be effectively treated with tablets he takes eight times a day.
He concluded: "I keep telling everyone I've got bog-standard Parkinson's disease - you don't die from Parkinson's. At the end of the day I'm very,very happy. There's a lot of people worse off than me."
Whether old Luggs is smiling by the time this season gets going with all that's going on at Roots Hall we'll wait and see, no contract has actually been signed yet, and Ron still has a lot of bills to sort out!
Still, he obviously feels he has something to prove, could be just what we need the way the club is being run at the moment.