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.
