Paul Sturrock was announced as the new Shrimpers manager at a press conference Monday morning but spoke to www.southendunited.co.uk before hand, telling them that 'this is my kind of club', a comment regarding at least two of his former clubs; Sheffield Wednesday, who he says were £27million in debt when he joined, and Swindon Town, who were in for about half that amount.
Sturrock said: "I am used to going into teams where they need to be renewed and restructured and I'm looking forward to that. The chairman and I had a discussion and he's very positive about things with the new stadium and what he hopes to achieve."
Good luck mate, but a warning, he's been conning us for a while now!
And what about the rather small number of players we have turning up at pre-season training at the moment, some say nine, some say ten, whatever, it's not even a full team!
Sturrock explained: "Starting today we'll be on the phone to a lot of managers and agents trying to bring players in that will benefit this football club. There is no point bringing in individuals that get you out of this league and then having to revamp this squad again next season."
Fair enough, I believe it has been done recently though, under Tilly, but we digress.
He continued: "This is a very honest division and it can be a bit rough and tumble at times. If you don't handle that early on then you are going to lose a lot of games so it's very important that we bring talented football players to this football club. They also have to appreciate though that they have to roll their sleeves up to start with and along with their abilty will win football games."
So their you have it, the footballing gospel according to Paul, of which their has been some criticism from supporters of some of the clubs below, might have to get used to a different brand of footy than we had with Tills.
The man himself says: "I want to win; people say I want to win attractively? If that means I don't win I will take rough and tumble. The important thing for any football team in this division is to be up and around the top for most of the season. If we do that we have a great chance of getting out of this division."
We shall see my Scottish friend, we will see.
The Sturrock Files
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Paul Whitehead Sturrock | ||
| Date of birth | 10 October 1956 (1956-10-10) | ||
| Place of birth | Ellon Aberdeenshire, Scotland | ||
| Height | 5ft 8in (1.72m) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Southend United | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Bankfoot Athletic | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps (Gls)† | |
| 1974-1989 | Dundee United | 385 (109) | |
| National team | |||
| 1977-1982 | Scotland under-21 | 9 (0) | |
| 1981-1987 | Scotland | 20 (3) | |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1993-1998 | St. Johnstone | ||
| 1998-2000 | Dundee United | ||
| 2000-2004 | Plymouth Argyle | ||
| 2004 | Southampton | ||
| 2004-2006 | Sheffield Wednesday | ||
| 2006-2007 | Swindon Town | ||
| 2007-2009 | Plymouth Argyle | ||
| 2010- | Southend United | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). | |||
(Manager information supplied by Wikipedia, for the full article go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sturrock)