Sturrock ready to shake things up at St Mary's

PAUL STURROCK yesterday took charge of Southampton and warned his players to shape up or face the unusual tactics which made him one of the country's hottest managerial properties.

The Scot, 47, was appointed successor to Gordon Strachan at St Mary's yesterday after Southampton struck a compensation deal with Plymouth, who Sturrock transformed into Second Division promotion hopefuls.

Sturrock immediately pledged to stamp his mark, hardly surprising for a man with a reputation for off-the-wall tactics.

Sturrock's management style is based on team-spirit and motivation a combination achieved at St Johnstone by threatening his side with a trip down a coal mine.

During his three-and-a-half year reign at Plymouth he created a bond among players by forcing them to cook up meals for their team-mates on the eve of games.

Sturrock, who has signed a two-year contract which will become a one-year rolling deal in 12 months, plans to delve into his back-catalogue if Southampton's players show the wrong attitude.

"I'm not radical," Sturrock said. "I did what I did at St Johnstone as I felt my players were not appreciating the importance of their jobs and if I felt it was needed here, I would think about doing it.

"At Plymouth, we made two players serve up a banquet for the rest of the team on the Friday before a game. The cooking was marked and the players with the worst three marks had to take all the others out for a soiree at the end of the season."

The timing of Sturrock's appointment news of which first emerged on Wednesday, just as favourite Glenn Hoddle pulled out of the race for his old job gave the impression Sturrock was the second choice for Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe.

Lowe revealed he first approached Sturrock at the start of February. He also hit back at Plymouth vice-chairman Peter Jones, who accused Southampton of doing to them what Tottenham did to the St Mary's side three years ago.

Spurs lured Hoddle, under contract on the south coast, to White Hart Lane but Lowe insisted his targeting of Sturrock bore no similarities.

"I've dealt with Plymouth chairman Paul Stapleton and have never spoken to his deputy," Lowe said.

"I don't know why he said what he did but I don't think there's any similarity at all between the two situations."

Sturrock has moved without his backroom staff and will now assess the roles of Southampton's support staff Gary Pendrey, Dennis Rofe and Steve Wigley before deciding on whether to ask his Plymouth coaches to join him in the Premiership.

Southampton are without a game this weekend after being knocked out of the FA Cup, meaning Sturrock's first match at the helm will be the home game with Liverpool next Sunday.