Paul Sturrock

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Personal information
Paul Sturrock

Full name	Paul Whitehead Sturrock
Date of birth	October 10, 1956 (age 50)
Place of birth	Ellon, Scotland
Nickname	Luggy
Playing position	Striker (retired)
Club information
Current club	Swindon Town (manager)
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1974-1989	Dundee United	385 (109)
National team
1977-1982 1981-1987	Scotland under-21 Scotland	009 00(0) 020 00(3)
Teams managed
1993-1998 1998-2000 2000-2004 2004 2004-2006 2006-	St. Johnstone Dundee United Plymouth Argyle Southampton Sheffield Wednesday Swindon Town
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956, Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) is the current manager of Swindon Town and the former manager of Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Plymouth Argyle, Dundee United and St Johnstone. He was also a Scotland international footballer. He is known by fans as Luggy (from the Scots language word lugs, Eng: ears). He is renowned for his use of the slang word "pointage", which seems to mean the obtaining of points in a league competition.

1 Playing career
2 Management
3 Honours
- 3.1 As a player
- 3.2 As a manager
4 Managerial stats
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Early days

He was educated at Pitlochry primary and secondary schools and played for junior side Grandtully Vale. In 1972 he joined Vale of Atholl of the Perthshire Amateur First Division, and in the 1972-73 season he scored approximately 100 goals. He then moved on to Bankfoot Juniors and in the 1973-74 season he scored 53 goals as they finished 2nd in the Scottish Junior FA First Division.

He had trials with Morton and St. Johnstone, but was signed for Dundee United by then manager Jim McLean on 1 July 1974.

[edit] Dundee United

He made his debut in the European Cup Winners' Cup match v Juil Petrosani of Romania on 18 September 1974 and his league debut on 28 December 1974 as a substitute v Motherwell.

In his first season at Tannadice he made nine League appearances and came on from the substitutes’ bench for three more and in the process he scored six goals. His first goal for Dundee United was one of two he scored in a 2-2 draw with Rangers at Tannadice on 5 April 1975. Dundee United finished fourth in the League that year. In the following season, he made 18 League appearances, eight as sub, and scored three times. He was also played as a substitute in two of the three Scottish Cup ties and was on from the start in five out of six League Cup games and scored once. He also started in three of the four UEFA Cup games netting one in that competition, too.

1976-77 not only saw Dundee United consolidate their Premier League position but throughout the campaign Paul Sturrock was an ever-present, playing in all 36 League games and incredibly, scoring 15 times. Adding that total to one each in the Scottish Cup and League Cup he was top scorer at the Club that year. He played in United’s only Scottish Cup tie, a 4-1 defeat at Paisley. He also appeared four times plus once as sub out of the six League Cup ties. In a short-lived Anglo Scottish Cup campaign he was brought on as sub in one leg of the tie against Aberdeen. This season was also significant in international terms for Paul as he made his Under-21 debut against Czechoslovakia in a 0-0 draw on 12 October 1976 in the first ever Scotland Under-21 side. Four months later on 9 February 1977 he netted his first international goal in an Under-21 game in which Scotland beat Wales 3-2.

He continued to be a regular in Dundee United’s side and featured heavily in European competition.

1982-83 was to prove to be, arguably, the pinnacle of Paul’s career at Dundee United (although some might say that his World Cup Finals appearance three years later was his zenith). In a season that saw United lose only four League games, they won the Scottish League Championship and Paul contributed to this success with eight goals in his 28 appearances. He also set up Ralph Milne for his spectacular fourth minute opener against Dundee in the final League game and set the side on the final steps to the ultimate reward. The Scottish Cup that year had been yet another early exit at the hands of St. Mirren. Paul scored seven in the nine games he turned out in on the way to a League Cup quarter-final exit. He also played in seven of the eight games and scored once in a UEFA cup run that ended with an exit in Prague.

His playing career ended in 1989. In 385 league appearances from 1974 to 1989 he scored 109 goals for the club. His final tally of 576 games in which he scored 171 goals makes him Dundee United’s top attacking player of all time.

Paul stayed at Tannadice for the next five years as a coach, passing on his knowledge in the role of coach. He left the Club in 1993 after twenty years continuous service.

He once held the record for the most goals in a Scottish Premier League fixture, scoring five times for Dundee United against Morton on 17 November 1984. This has since been equalled in 1997 by Marco Negri for Rangers against Dundee United, by Kenny Miller in 2000 for the Ibrox club against St. Mirren and by Kris Boyd for Kilmarnock against Dundee United in 2004.

[edit] Scotland

He made his full international debut for Scotland v Wales on 16 May 1981, and on 8 November 1981, he scored his first goal for Scotland in the 2-1 World Cup qualifier defeat v Portugal in Lisbon.

Sturrock won 20 caps for his country, scoring 3 goals. He was a non-playing member of the Scotland squad for the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain and appeared twice in Mexico in 1986.

[edit] Management

Since retirement in 1989, he has become a coach and latterly a first team manager. He is one of the most qualified coaches in Europe, and he assessed current Chelsea manager José Mourinho at one point.

[edit] St. Johnstone and Dundee United

In 1993, he became the manager of a First Division team, St Johnstone. During this time, he is reported to have suffered a heart attack, although he claims that he only suffered hyperventilation, brought on by tiredness and stress; nonetheless he guided them to promotion in 1996-97.

In September 1998 he was appointed manager at Dundee United.

[edit] Plymouth Argyle

Sturrock shocked Dundee United fans by resigning from the club in August 2000. [1] Perhaps more shockingly, he made a bold move to manage Plymouth Argyle, a club which was struggling in the English Division Three. The following season, he guided them to the Division Three title with a record points total of 102. In October 2003, Sturrock had successfully taken Argyle back to the top of the Football League Second Division and left when Plymouth Argyle were only one win away from being promoted to the Football League Championship. As a result of his success at Home Park he has remained a folk hero and was named as the manager of Argyle's all time team. During the troubled reign of his successor Bobby Williamson Argyle fans often chanted 'We want Luggy'.

[edit] Southampton

Sturrock was named as the successor to Gordon Strachan as manager of Southampton on 4 March 2004. On 23 August 2004 [2] it was announced that Sturrock was leaving the club 'by mutual consent', after a disappointing run of form and rumours of player unrest and boardroom dissatisfaction with his management.

[edit] Sheffield Wednesday

He was then appointed by League One club Sheffield Wednesday on September 23, 2004, and he guided the club to the League One play-offs. After beating Brentford in the semi-final with an aggregate score of 3-1, Sturrock took Wednesday to the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium and beat Hartlepool United 4-2 after extra-time, winning promotion to the Championship.

A slow start to the 2006-07 season sparked rumours that Wednesday were about to sack Sturrock, but this speculation looked to be false when he agreed a new four-year contract on 14 September. But he was sacked on the evening of 19 October [3], just five weeks and 3 games after agreeing this new deal. The new contract was agreed while the club were at the bottom of the League, while he was sacked when they were fourth from bottom.

[edit] Swindon Town

After Sturrock's emotional departure from Sheffield Wednesday he proclaimed that he would accept the first job offered to him. It is rumoured that Scottish Premier League outfit Hibernian were a team interested. But after John Collins got the job it was only Swindon that made public interest in the Scotsman.

On November 7, 2006 [4] Sturrock was confirmed as Swindon boss with Kevin Summerfield and John Blackley following him from Wednesday. Sturrock will look to emulate what he achieved with Plymouth, and get Swindon Town Football Club back into the Championship within 5 years.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

(All with Dundee United)

Scottish League Cup - 1979-80, 1980-81
Scottish Premier League - 1982-83
UEFA Cup Runner-up - 1986-87
Scottish Cup Runner up 1980-81 1983-84 1986-87 1987-88
Scottish League Cup runner up 1981-82 1984-85
Full Scottish caps 20

[edit] As a manager

Scottish First Division - (St Johnstone) - 1996-97
Football League Third Division - (Plymouth Argyle) - 2001-02
Football League One play-off winner - (Sheffield Wednesday) - 2004-05

Note: Paul Sturrock was in charge for the first 30 games of Plymouth Argyle's 2003-04 Second Division success.

In January 2004, Sturrock came top of the Tissot Managers Performance League, which is run by the League Managers Association.

[edit] Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
Team	Nat	From	To	G	W	L	D	Win %
St Johnstone		August 1, 1993	September 5, 1998	197	90	51	56	45.68
Dundee United		September 5, 1998	August 7, 2000	85	27	39	19	31.76
Plymouth Argyle		October 31, 2000	March 4, 2004	178	85	46	47	47.75
Southampton		March 4, 2004	August 23, 2004	13	5	6	2	38.46
Sheffield Wednesday		September 23, 2004	October 19, 2006	104	35	40	29	33.65
Swindon Town		November 7, 2006	Present	24	13	7	4	54.16

[edit] See also

One-club man.

[edit] External links

Preceded by Alan Rough	Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1982	Succeeded by Charlie Nicholas
Preceded by John McClelland	St. Johnstone F.C. manager 1993-1998	Succeeded by Sandy Clark
Preceded by Tommy McLean	Dundee United F.C. manager 1998-2000	Succeeded by Alex Smith
Preceded by Kevin Summerfield (caretaker)	Plymouth Argyle F.C. manager 2000-2004	Succeeded by Kevin Summerfield (caretaker)
Preceded by Gordon Strachan	Southampton F.C. Manager 2004	Succeeded by Steve Wigley
Preceded by Chris Turner	Sheffield Wednesday F.C. manager 2004-2006	Succeeded by Sean McAuley (caretaker)
Preceded by Adrian Williams (caretaker)	Swindon Town F.C. manager 2006-	Succeeded by Incumbent

	Scotland squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup
1 Rough \| 2 McGrain \| 3 Gray \| 4 Souness \| 5 Hansen \| 6 Miller \| 7 Strachan \| 8 Dalglish \| 9 Brazil \| 10 Wark \| 11 Robertson \| 12 Wood \| 13 McLeish \| 14 Narey \| 15 Jordan \| 16 Hartford \| 17 Evans \| 18 Archibald \| 19 Sturrock \| 20 Provan \| 21 Burley \| 22 Leighton \| Coach: Stein

	Scotland squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton \| 2 Gough \| 3 Malpas \| 4 Souness \| 5 McLeish \| 6 Miller \| 7 Strachan \| 8 Aitken \| 9 Bannon \| 10 Bett \| 11 McStay \| 12 Goram \| 13 Nicol \| 14 Narey \| 15 Albiston \| 16 McAvennie \| 17 Archibald \| 18 Sharp \| 19 Nicholas \| 20 Sturrock \| 21 Cooper \| 22 Rough \| Coach: Ferguson

Swindon Town F.C. - Current Squad
1 Brezovan \| 2 J. Smith \| 3 Vincent \| 4 Zaaboub \| 5 Ifil \| 6 Williams \| 7 Whalley \| 8 Brown \| 9 Roberts \| 10 Peacock \| 12 Shakes \| 13 Stewart \| 15 Nicholas \| 16 Noubissie \| 18 Evans \| 19 Pook \| 20 Brownlie \| 21 Jutkiewicz \| 22 B. Sturrock \| 23 Weston \| 24 Holgate \| 25 P. Smith \| 27 Wells \| 28 Caton \| 34 Timlin \| Manager: P. Sturrock

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