Former Yeovil Town manager Paul Sturrock (the less said about his spell the better) has taken up a new role in management and starting a club south-east Cornwall called Menheniot Pilgrims.
Playing in tangerine and green, he plans to build a team of 16 to 21-year-olds with a view to developing them to play higher up in the pyramid.
Sturrock told Plymouth Live: “I like taking training and coaching. I miss it, so I have decided to start this amateur team of under-21s. I can work with people individually and the aim is to get them to play at a higher standard. I’m not averse to having a couple of boys over 21. I might need one or two stalwarts to help us through and get us on our feet, but it really is for 16 to 21s. We will start at the bottom and hopefully over the next two or three years we will get better and better.”
“I haven’t got a date yet but I’m getting Lux Park for a trial game around the middle of July. The essence is that we get enough players to have a trial game and then I decide what ones I’m going to sign. They could come from Plymouth, Liskeard, Callington. Anything like that.”
Nicknamed Argyle after the club where he enjoyed plenty of management success, this club definitely feels like an lockdown-inspired project for the Scot.
He said: “There is a pitch in place, there are goals in place. It’s a wee bit slopey but, again, it’s amateur football. It will do for the first couple of years and we can see what we do as we go along. The village is kind of crying out for something like this. There are a lot of older people and they don’t have that much to do in the village. So they can come along and watch a game on a Saturday afternoon. It’s something to do, and they don’t have far to walk.”
Sturrock added: “I’m going to get forms sent to me about joining the Duchy League. I don’t know what league they are going to put us in. I would imagine the bottom one to start off with. And I have got to get the parish council to give us the nod that we can use the pitch regularly. They have had a wee meeting about it and they are looking forward to it. Over the next couple of days I will join up with two or three of them and we will make sure we get it all sorted.”