Luggy

His book is coming out soon;

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Timed to coincide with his sacking at Yeovil? Nah, hope the old boy can turn it around up there but have my doubts somehow. Also hope that the account of his second spell at Argyle is frank about what really went on-could be a bit of an eye opener.

i hope he gives and honest account of his 2nd spell and not the pasoti edited version ie it was all the nwo's fault and nothing to do with him.

I echo what you echoed Angry.

I was very disappointed with Sturrock when he was commentating on Argyle, and started slagging off Mariner, while the game was going on. I think he was even still part of the club at the time, having been booted 'upstairs'. Not very professional, or friendly.
I think he became bitter, and any recounting of that period will only be the view of one man.

Sir John Hawkins wrote:

I was very disappointed with Sturrock when he was commentating on Argyle, and started slagging off Mariner, while the game was going on. I think he was even still part of the club at the time, having been booted 'upstairs'. Not very professional, or friendly.
I think he became bitter, and any recounting of that period will only be the view of one man.

Mariner was brought in to try and force luggy to quit i believe as the club couldnt afford to sack him or even pay him off hence the office job i feel.

Sir John Hawkins wrote:

I was very disappointed with Sturrock when he was commentating on Argyle, and started slagging off Mariner, while the game was going on. I think he was even still part of the club at the time, having been booted 'upstairs'. Not very professional, or friendly.
I think he became bitter, and any recounting of that period will only be the view of one man.

Maybe his bitterness was justified-distinctly remember the chairman on TV stating that "Paul can keep everybody if he wants to" in reply to a question about possible forthcoming player sales. Didn't quite work out that way and nor did the balance between money received for outgoing transfers in relation to that paid for incoming ones. Still, must have been a nice boost to the balance sheet to present to Kagami.

Greenskin wrote:

Sir John Hawkins wrote:

I was very disappointed with Sturrock when he was commentating on Argyle, and started slagging off Mariner, while the game was going on. I think he was even still part of the club at the time, having been booted 'upstairs'. Not very professional, or friendly.
I think he became bitter, and any recounting of that period will only be the view of one man.

Maybe his bitterness was justified-distinctly remember the chairman on TV stating that "Paul can keep everybody if he wants to" in reply to a question about possible forthcoming player sales. Didn't quite work out that way and nor did the balance between money received for outgoing transfers in relation to that paid for incoming ones. Still, must have been a nice boost to the balance sheet to present to Kagami.

I hope he is humble enough to at least admit his more than fair share.

Looking back there's been some mysterious stuff transfer-wise that has never really been adequately explained.

I suppose the first one was Mario Haas, then there was the Jason Puncheon thing, the total waste of time and money that was Emille Mpenza, exactly what was going on when Buszaky went...

And then there was the continuing problem Luggy had trying to recruit the players he wanted. I know that Chris Clarke, Jim Patterson, Steve McLean and Yoann Folly all both disappointed and cost rather a lot but McLean had a good track record before coming here and Folly was a promising youngster and they both had played for Luggy before. What went wrong with them and why? Why were Clarke and Paterson the best we could recruit?

That fella from Birmingham whose name escapes me... Kenny Cooper! WTF was that all about?

All very odd.

There's probably others.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Looking back there's been some mysterious stuff transfer-wise that has never really been adequately explained.

I suppose the first one was Mario Haas, then there was the Jason Puncheon thing, the total waste of time and money that was Emille Mpenza, exactly what was going on when Buszaky went...

And then there was the continuing problem Luggy had trying to recruit the players he wanted. I know that Chris Clarke, Jim Patterson, Steve McLean and Yoann Folly all both disappointed and cost rather a lot but McLean had a good track record before coming here and Folly was a promising youngster and they both had played for Luggy before. What went wrong with them and why? Why were Clarke and Paterson the best we could recruit?

That fella from Birmingham whose name escapes me... Kenny Cooper! WTF was that all about?

All very odd.

There's probably others.

Mclean and Folly both had bad injuries/illnesses before they came to Argyle-Cardiff must have been pissing themselves to get £500k for Mclean- but the other players didn't actually cost very much, around the £200k mark as I remember, which was chickenfeed at CCC level. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for and by selling class players and then buying players whose plain below averageness absolutely reflected their cost, you'll get relegated-the scenario has been replayed over and over again at Argyle. There were some other rather strange happenings at the time, with people like Stack and Marin being much vaunted players only to be shipped out after a few games. The Mpenza business was also very odd-not fit enough to play for Argyle but fit enough to score 20 odd goals the season after in the Swiss top division, by no means a negligible standard. Was he not on some sort of pay as you play contract? Sturrock did have an atrocious piece of bad luck by signing BWP and then losing him for months after an injury in some pre season match-his goals may well have enabled Argyle to just about stay up had he been fit, in the same way as Gallagher's did the season before. Cooper and Damien Johnson were both Mariner signings, can't really blame Sturrock for those.

A strong rumour had Mpenza on 12 grand a week

Alan Gow. That was another one.

Sturrock's worst luck in his second spell was at centre back.

I think he tried Fletcher, N'Gala, Johnson, Lowry, Cathcart, Chester, Barker, Blake, Arnason, Timar and Seip there at one time or another. That's a lot of CBs!

Especially significant because of the way he sets his teams up.

But, yeah, BWP! That was a huge stroke of bad luck. I guess that's the problem with having a smallish squad: when a key player gets crocked there's no back-up for him.

That list of CB is preposterous though.

AstiSpumante wrote:

A strong rumour had Mpenza on 12 grand a week  

Definitely £10k/week at least.

That's a cool half million over a year.

Wasted.

If Luggy had the budget in place he wanted i dont think he would have done much better. Championship was a step too far from what he is comfortable working at.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Alan Gow. That was another one.

Sturrock's worst luck in his second spell was at centre back.

I think he tried Fletcher, N'Gala, Johnson, Lowry, Cathcart, Chester, Barker, Blake, Arnason, Timar and Seip there at one time or another. That's a lot of CBs!

Especially significant because of the way he sets his teams up.

But, yeah, BWP! That was a huge stroke of bad luck. I guess that's the problem with having a smallish squad: when a key player gets crocked there's no back-up for him.

That list of CB is preposterous though.

Always thought it was mistake to play Matt Doumbe at full back, which he was patently unsuited to. Doumbe was a capable CCC standard defender whose pace was an ideal complement to a ball winning centre back such as Elliott Ward.

Russell Anderson was another CB tried by Luggy.

Don't mention Anderson's name to Marcel Seip.

Sir John Hawkins wrote:

Don't mention Anderson's name to Marcel Seip.

tha whole saga was a joke. Why ask a player to take jabs for a hernia to put off much needed surgery because he was vital to the team only to tell him he was dropped and on the bench straight after he agreed. Im not surprised seip walked out. Probably would have been sold in that summer if he wasnt banging the chairman's daughter.

Mackie, Bolasie, Puncheon, Ebanks Blake, Noone, Buzsaky, Halmosi, Gosling...all Premiership players after leaving us

with Mpenza, Fletcher, Stack, Johnson etc coming from the other direction.


Yet we ended up playing Rory Fallon up front on his own with Chris Clark and Jim Paterson on the wings.

Mock Cuncher wrote:

Mackie, Bolasie, Puncheon, Ebanks Blake, Noone, Buzsaky, Halmosi, Gosling...all Premiership players after leaving us

with Mpenza, Fletcher, Stack, Johnson etc coming from the other direction.


Yet we ended up playing Rory Fallon up front on his own with Chris Clark and Jim Paterson on the wings.

Exactly the same years ago mate, people like Jennings, Jones, Trebilcock ,Jackson and Book or Mariner and Rafferty being replaced by relegation fodder nonentities.'Tis the Argyle syndrome i'm afraid.

Mpenza looked quality when he played for us.

It's a shame it was only a handful of games for some bizarre reason.

Seeing some of the names here is genuinely depressing. We replaced such good effective players with poor ones. Yoann Folly, Chris Clark, Jim Paterson, Rory Fallon, Graham Stack, Richard Eckersley. They just never looked like second tier players for a second.

Reda Johnson turned out alright in the end, but boy did he have mistakes in him when he first arrived. Every game another blunder, but suddenly he found his groove and showed great form towards the end.

Given what Puncheon achieved after Argyle, it is another strange one why we kept this standout player in our team on the sidelines, then flogged him for next to nothing.

Wasn't it Cardiff we were playing when we were 3 1 down when Mpenza came in off the bench and banged two in? I remember the old bill letting the Cardiff scum out early, had my land rover rocked by a posse of them whilst we drove around the car park, them were the days.
Something happened in the dressing room with Emile, must have, no other explanation.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Looking back there's been some mysterious stuff transfer-wise that has never really been adequately explained.

I suppose the first one was Mario Haas, then there was the Jason Puncheon thing, the total waste of time and money that was Emille Mpenza, exactly what was going on when Buszaky went...

And then there was the continuing problem Luggy had trying to recruit the players he wanted. I know that Chris Clarke, Jim Patterson, Steve McLean and Yoann Folly all both disappointed and cost rather a lot but McLean had a good track record before coming here and Folly was a promising youngster and they both had played for Luggy before. What went wrong with them and why? Why were Clarke and Paterson the best we could recruit?

That fella from Birmingham whose name escapes me... Kenny Cooper! WTF was that all about?

All very odd.

There's probably others.

Cilian Sheridan is the one I always remember.

Iggy wrote:

Wasn't it Cardiff we were playing when we were 3 1 down when Mpenza came in off the bench and banged two in? I remember the old bill letting the Cardiff scum out early, had my land rover rocked by a posse of them whilst we drove around the car park, them were the days.
Something happened in the dressing room with Emile, must have, no other explanation.

It was Charlton Iggers. I remember it well because it was about the only time that I ever walked out of Home Park early after Charlton scored a penalty about 3 minutes into injury time. Got out of the ground and had just about reached where the buses are parked when; Rooooaaaaaaarrrrrrr! the buggers had equalised, Emile had taken the splinters out of his arse and come on and smacked one in. That taught me.

Was Duguid a luggy (second spell signing) also? Always thought he was awful (despite the goals).

Iggy wrote:

Wasn't it Cardiff we were playing when we were 3 1 down when Mpenza came in off the bench and banged two in? I remember the old bill letting the Cardiff scum out early, had my land rover rocked by a posse of them whilst we drove around the car park, them were the days.
Something happened in the dressing room with Emile, must have, no other explanation.

Think that was the game that Buzsaky and Nalis came on just after half time when we were 0-3 down and Akos changed the game. Cardiff scored 2 own goals from Buzsaky crosses- one from Darren Purse- and we scored another scrappy goal.

To be fair, I always quite liked Jim Patterson. He wasn't tall or strong, and he often looked like he was running through treacle, but he was smart and made the most of what he had. No real stand out games, but I don't remember him having too many howlers for us either.

Some of the others were just bizarre though. As someone has said, how was Mpenza fit enough the following season to be banging them in? Marin got a couple of games and was dumped, apparently for the crime of Being a Winger. Puncheon not getting a look in.

Was it that Luggy liked grafters? He did play some flair players, but I seem to remember that guys like Noone and Bolasie would at least attempt to track back, even if they were sometimes comically bad at it.