I think we are one win from being back on the rails. We can even be absolutely hopeless, just so long as we get that win
SAYS PAUL STURROCK
PAUL STURROCK has just finished putting the Dundee United players through their paces during a training session. Not bad for a man who continues to battle Parkinson’s disease, but then again ‘Luggy’ has always been a fighter.
That bulldog spirit is required in bucketfuls by the Tannadice club these days. From pushing for a place at the top of the Championship, United have plummeted back among those striving just for a place in the play-off spots.
Worryingly, they could slip out of those play-off places today should things go awry against Morton — one point above them in the league — and few would back United to pick up anything in Greenock.
On the park, these are fretful times. Of their last eight games, they have won just once and, following their most recent reverse — a 1-0 defeat to Inverness this week — goalkeeper Harry Lewis’ words should make all of a Tangerine persuasion shudder.
He spoke of there being ‘no structure’ to the team and added: ‘The fans don’t believe in us. We have given them nothing to believe in.’
Off the park, the machinations in the boardroom saw unpopular chairman Stephen Thompson stand aside, although he still owns 52 per cent of the club’s shares.
New incumbent Mike Martin has to somehow steady the ship while many fans still eye him warily given his friendship with his predecessor. Guilt by association.
Losses for the last financial year are £1million — the club’s current debt is £1.5m. The implications for missing promotion are stark.
So it is this harsh reality into which Sturrock has ridden like some returning hero in a Western movie — there to steady the put-upon townsfolk increasingly fed-up with the leadership of a bungling sheriff, in this case manager Csaba Laszlo.
Yet, as we all know, not all movies end well.
‘I’m a fan, I know that people are not happy,’ said Sturrock, now 61. ‘Everybody at the football club appreciates that.
‘At this minute in time we’re fourth in the Championship from being potentially a top-four team in the Premier League for God knows how long, so I can appreciate it.
‘No manager or chairman goes out not to win a football game or not to make sure his football club is not going in the right direction.
‘I do feel that recruitment has been one of the key reasons that things have worked out not how we’d like it.
‘At the end of the day, a manager turns up with a long injury list, poor recruitment before him, and all of a sudden he has to win football games at the same time as revamping his squad.
‘Then in comes another one, his ideas, change everything, injuries, revamp the squad. I took over Sheffield Wednesday at a time they had been through the same scenario.
‘They’d had three or four managers, signed the world and it just needed a bit of luck to get into the play-offs which we did.
‘We won our semi, got to the final, 2-1 down with nine minutes to go, we score, go into extra-time and win it.
‘And look at Hibs. Everybody is saying: “Oh Dundee United, disgrace” but Hibs took three years to get out of this league and struggled in the third year as well. It’s not an easy league.’
Sturrock, though, ignores the fact that when Hibs were in the second tier the league also contained Rangers and Hearts, making it an altogether tougher proposition than the one they currently face. While St Mirren have run away with the league, United fans are wondering why their side are finding it so hard to compete with the likes of Livingston, Queen of the South and Dunfermline.
‘The pressure is on the team at this minute in time because we’ve got an exasperated fan base because of the position we are in the league,’ added Sturrock.
‘It’s hard work. I hope that my recruitment drive over the summer months, and that’s what I’m really here for, will benefit the football club.
‘Hopefully no matter what happens to the end of the season it will be a stronger team whatever league we’re in next season.’
Sturrock sympathises with former managers Mixu Paatelainen and Ray McKinnon who, prior to Laszlo’s arrival, had to build a team as well as identifying new players.
But he believes his recent arrival can at least solve that part of the problem.
He said: ‘The recruitment is a slight problem because you don’t know what league you’re going to be in. That’s happened to two managers before Csaba.
‘They were trying to win games while restructuring their team with players who were going to be comfortable in the Championship and good enough to play in the Premier League.
‘There are not many of them to the pound. We are in that same position again, so it is vital that we get more right than wrong.
‘I think that’s what’s happened in the past. Ten signings, seven bad ones and three good ones.
‘We’ve got to try and turn that to seven good ones and three bad ones.’
Sturrock has enjoyed being part of United’s build-up to today’s Morton match. He originally arrived in a scouting capacity, but the tactical knowledge of a man who scored 171 goals in 574 games for the club he also managed was ripe to be mined.
‘I took a training session and that was very nice. I was looking forward to it, and it went very well,’ he said. ‘I took certain parts at Yeovil, Plymouth and, before that, Southend.
‘I think it’s a freshness. The manager said to me: “Do this, do that today.” I had a window of 20 minutes and really enjoyed it. First, I met (Csaba) to help out with the scouting.
‘It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that some of the teams in Scotland have benefited from going down to England and bringing players up.
‘I think Ross County for a wee spell, Inverness, Motherwell have been very successful.
‘It’s something that Dundee United hasn’t really tapped into, so I was happy to come up and talk to the manager and chairman and talk about doing that job.
‘They’re getting a wee bit older but I still have my scouting system down there who are quite happy to pitch in again. They are doing bits and pieces and my agent is kind of co-ordinating it all.’
The immediate problem, though, is turning a team for which confidence is a stranger into an outfit capable of grabbing points, any points, to secure a play-off berth.
‘Confidence is a huge thing in football,’ Sturrock admitted. ‘I watched their reaction to losing the goal against Dunfermline last week at home and their body language showed people whose heads are down.
‘I think we are a win away from being back on the rails. It can be a dirty win as far as I’m concerned, we can be absolutely hopeless, just so long as we win.’