RIP Mayflower

It’s a funny old world, Saint.

Less than two weeks after I had acquired from eBay an away shirt from the 2003-04 promotion season (that’s the tangergreen one, for the uninitiated), the man responsible for making orange our second colour returns to complete the job he started and that Rupert Lowe so rudely interrupted.  It’s official: we can now say, Paul Sturrock is the new Argyle manager.  Luggy’s coming home.

I’m enthusiastic.  He wasn’t my first choice, but he was probably second or third on my list.  While there’s always a danger of “never go back” - and I’m not sure how I feel about the coziness of his relationship with the chairman - he will bring a cohesiveness and a strength to what has the potential to be a very good side.  His first major test will be withstanding the raiding parties in the January sales and securing a permanent deal for Lee Martin.  The other purchase which needs to be made is as good a striker as we can get.  We still do not score enough goals and fail to kill teams off properly.  Stuart Fleetwood of Forest Green Rovers looks as though he might fit the bill, though we would face competition for his signature.

Tomorrow night promises to be a very special occasion indeed.  If the Plymouth public come out to welcome Luggy home, and the players oblige by putting in the sort of performance they’re capable of, it could go down as one of THE nights in Argyle history.  The tangergreen will get its first outing - marking the beginning of the SLE (Second Luggy Era).  Bring it, as they say, on.

With the deal all but done, and a range of emotions among the GA, ranging from hysteria, bereavement, incomprehensible grief and resignation, some clear and calm thinking needs to happen. I am a little premature, but for the sake of it, can we take a couple of things as read:

1) He is going;
2) We will get compensation, probably the £230K limit that is alleged to be in his contract;
3) The Board, despite what many people (including me) think they OUGHT to do, are not going anywhere at the moment.

We have five games in fifteen days. It’s the worst possible time for him to go. I assume (though I might be wrong) that he will take Breacker with him, which leaves the team to be picked by Bulpin and Crudgie and Maxie. We therefore need a replacement in as soon as possible. Who?

Above all else - are you listening Mr Chairman - NOT COTTERILL. Not Cotterill. Not Cotterill.

Unsurprisingly, many people are talking about the return of Sturrock. Would I take Luggy over Cotterill? Absolutely. I’d take him over a number of other candidates as well, including Gregory or Reid. Whether he’s the right candidate is another matter. In may ways it would be harder for him to come in again after being away: he carries baggage from nefore and it might also be harder for the players. I’m not sure that he would bring the stability people seem to be assuming he would. Theres also a nagging suspicion that he’s not (quite) good enough for this league.

So who else? Of the current out-of-work managers not already ruled out by me, Mike Newell and Martin Allen are probably the most high-profile. Both come with “issues”: Newell’s tendency to open his mouth before engaging his brain might wear thin rather quickly; Allen’s unproven at this level - and why did Mandaric get shot of him so quickly? Of the in-work managers, Paul Ince might be an interesting appointment, but I doubt he’d come here. St Johnstone have already rebuffed Burnley’s approach for Owen Coyle.

My personal preference is for Leyton Orient’s Martin Ling. He has links down here (OK, as an Exeter player!); his teams play football the right way and he’s done very well at Orient. Sure, he’d be a gamble. So’s any appointment: and I’d rather we tried something fresh than the stale old names with their recycled footballing philosophies.

LING IN!

In anticipation of a press conference in Leicester in the next 48 hours.

Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat –
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote;
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,
So much was theirs who so little allowed:
How all our copper had gone for his service!
Rags – were they purple, his heart had been proud!
We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die!
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,
Burns, Shelley, were with us – they watch from their graves!
He alone breaks from the van and the freemen,
– He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!

We shall march prospering – not through his presence;
Songs may inspirit us, – not from his lyre;
Deeds will be done, – while he boasts his quiescence,
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire:
Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,
One more devils’-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
Life’s night begins: let him never come back to us!
There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,
Forced praise on our part – the glimmer of twilight,
Never glad confident morning again!
Best fight on well, for we taught him – strike gallantly,
Menace our heart ere we master his own;
Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,
Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!

Robert Browning.

I spent Monday morning being shown over Trefrew Park, home of Camelford FC. The club have been at their new ground for just over a year since moving from their old place at Tregoodwell. It’s a £500,000 development, still under construction, with seating and covered standing for 100 spectators, two pitches, changing rooms and kitchen. Camelford field three senior teams, the first of which play in Peninsula League Division 1 (West). They also run a ladies team and four junior teams, running Saturday morning training for over 90 kids. Ticket prices are £3 - and unlike many other Peninsula League teams, pay no salaries or appearance money to players.

I came away convinced that local football is essential both to the wellbeing of local communities and to the game in general. Without local football, there can be no Premiership. I grew up, as a boy, watching Bodmin Town and I still remember those early experiences in vivd detail: the smells, the half-time Bovril; the glare of the rudimentary floodlights. And so I am resolved, on non-Argyle days, to put in appearances at Trefrew: the ground is within easy walking distance of my house and more importantly, the club deserves to be supported by the community.

Today, by contrast, I read that the Football League have signed a new deal with Sky and the BBC worth £264 million. How much of that Argyle will see is open to question, but nonetheless, these are unreal numbers in an increasingly unreal industry, disconnected from its fanbase and from its own grassroots. This cannot be healthy - and furthermore, expect to see continued spiralling wage inflation and ticket price rises. How sustainable is the bubble?

The debate over whether £500K represents best value for possibly the most naturally talented player Argyle have had in a quarter of a century (sit down, Paul Dalton fans) but who was frustratingly inconsistent and out of contact in the summer has been done to death elsewhere. Nor am I going to resurrect the various conspiracy theories doing the rounds over what pressure AB was or was not put under to sign his new deal, and what his agent did or did not want as part of the deal. I simply say that I personally shall miss him: and I think Argyle will too. I have a prejudice - I admit it - in favour of so-called flair players: and I contend that Argyle fans in general are suspicious of such players, much more so than, for example, QPR fans. I think its interesting that they have given Buzz the 10 shirt, formerly worn by such luminaries as Rodney Marsh and Stan Bowles. I hope he flourishes at Loftus Road.

But players come and players go. Lee Martin is here on loan from Manchester United and produced a virtuoso display (and the winner) against Coventry. Also joined on loan, but explicitly with a view to a permanent move in January is former Wycombe striker Jermaine Easter. They both deserve the patience of the Home Park faithful as they begin their careers here. Whether the same should be said of the current boardroom is another matter: this week on the official site appeared a quite bizarre (unnamed) attack on Herald columnist Owen Ryles for daring to suggest that not absolutely everything was peachy-creamy in the Argyle garden. The article was patronising, offensive and wide of the mark in fairly equal measure. In particular, I take exception to the notion that criticising specific decisions, policies and modi operandi of the current regime is the same as being negative about the Club. For what it’s worth, not only do I spend a great deal of money following the Greens, I almost always have at least one other person with me: often people who haven’t been to Argyle before. I’m doing my bit, personally, to expand the Argo fanbase and I reckon that gives me the right to say, clearly and distinctly, that the Club is crying out for substantial investment and that if the current Board cannot offer it then they should move over for people who can. If that makes me “negative”, “browntint” , or a “miserable old git” then so be it. But I pay my (and others’) money: and I shall continue to call it as I see it. And I don’t have a paid spindoctor to do my dirty work for me.

Looking forward optimistically to tomorrrow’s game against the Owls. Here’s to an Argyle win and a debut goal for Easter. Something all Argyle fans could agree with.