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Mike Holden and Gregg Davies

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Do you Paul Sturrock take thee Eka Basunga Mpenza...


Friday 05 September 2008 14:00

Mike Holden casts his eye over Plymouth's new international signing... 

If you thought Dimitar Berbatov’s move to Manchester United was protracted, get a load of this story about Emile Mpenza’s transfer to Plymouth Argyle.

Indeed, for those of you still grieving on behalf of Ramon Calderon and Peter Kenyon and their disappointment at missing out on Ronaldo and Robinho, this little tale should be enough to warm your cockles and put a smile back on your face. A happy ending if ever there was one.

Because Paul Sturrock isn’t so much an admirer of the former Belgian international as a lifelong stalker.


"There ain't nothing about Emile Mpenza I don't know" 

Asked about how the transfer came about, Sturrock couldn’t resist spinning a good old yarn to convince the Home Park faithful about his shrewd eye for a player.

“When I was with Dundee United, I contemplated taking him from Mouscron when he was very young,” he said, hitting the close button on Wikipedia. Apparently, Sturrock’s pursuit of Mpenza would have gone back earlier but, understandably, he didn’t fancy his chances of pronouncing his first club KV Kortrijk.

OK, so that was 12 years ago. A Belgian young-footballer-of-the-year signing for Dundee United. Sounds feasible. But then he couldn’t resist taking this particular episode of Jackanory not just one, but two chapters further.

“I also thought about taking him to Southampton,” he continued, forgetting that his tenure at St Mary’s wasn’t long enough for him to move his Tartan Army Espana '82 and Mexico '86 pennants into the office.

But just wait for the icing on the cake... “and I was really tempted when I was with Sheffield Wednesday and he was in Germany.” OK, so let’s get this straight. The Owls were playing in the old third division while Mpenza was plying his trade for Hamburg in the Bundesliga? I’m not surprised you were tempted, Luggy.


Mpenza: Ready to take the Championship by storm

So what happened then? Did you custard pie the idea to chase a three-time Pichichi winner at Deportivo La Coruna instead?

Well, anyway, it does sound like a decent signing for the Pilgrims. And we have ourselves a manager and player joined in holy matrimony without a penny changing hands. And isn’t that what football should all be about?

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About Mike Holden and Gregg Davies

Mike Holden is the editor of www.fillyourboots.co.uk - a football analysis website dedicated to the Coca-Cola League. He is one of the UK’s leading betting tipsters, delivering consistent profits for Bettingzone.co.uk and the SportsXchange TV channel.

Gregg Davies is a writer for FourFourTwo.com

Comments

  September 5, 2008 18:32

You what said:

What a load of crap, clearly written by a bitter and twisted Swindon or Dundee fan, or are you Ian Holloway in disguise?

  September 6, 2008 06:05

Del Unser said:

What a load of tosh, is there some hidden agenda here?  I would like to remind you that Luggy managed Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.  I found your last paragraph particularly distasteful, I wouldn't put Luggy in the same media-tart bracket as several other managers I could mention.

  September 6, 2008 09:44

greengary said:

Why do so called journalists feel the need to go out of there way to try and discredit Paul Sturrock. I can think of numerous managers that spout complete bollox most of the time with denials of facts and complete works of fiction. One previous Argyle manager started to believe in his own lies and even had the majority of the fans taken in by his deceit.

If the authors take the time to listen to PS they will realise that although he doesnt come across as the most articulate of people he isnt one to tell blatent lies.

In a world where managers, chairmen, players and agents will tell anyone anything to gain a few quid Paul Sturrock is a breath of fresh air - so take your shoddy, lazy journalism and go and speak to Ian Holloway who if the money is right will tell you anything that you want to hear.

  September 6, 2008 14:57

Annoyed said:

Wow...I missed the bit in the journalistic code of ethics where you can blatently call an individual a liar. With no proof. None.

I take it a retraction and a full apology to Mr Sturrock is hastily being arranged? Or are FourFourTwo, fillyourboots, Bettingzone and SportsXchange exceedingly happy to have their brands connected to this?

Sorry guys, this goes way beyond tounge in cheek, as you can neither see the tounge nor the cheek in the article. It just comes across as an attack.

And I'm not evn an Argyle fan.

  September 6, 2008 15:22

JonB said:

What an odd article.  It fails in every way to describe the sort of man that Sturrock is.

From the first couple of paragraphs of the story, through it's libellous middle & ending with it's sarcastic finale, this is the sort of inaccurate rubbish that is normally seen on a badly-moderated internet forum.

Really, really poor, FourFourTwo.

  September 8, 2008 13:02

Gary said:

People,

First up, and most importantly, there’s absolutely no negative ‘agenda’ with Paul Sturrock in particular or Plymouth Argyle in general. I struggle to see why there would be. If all clubs were as well-run, football would be a lot better place, while Luggy himself is as widely respected among journalists as he is among fans – and, for that matter, players.

Mike (just the one writer in this instance – wouldn’t two half-wits make a wit?) had tongue firmly in cheek when he wrote it, perhaps too much so. For the record, he doesn’t support Swindon, or Exeter, or Torquay, or Dundee, or Sheffield United, or Portsmouth. He does have a broad knowledge of the lower leagues and a commitment to encouraging debate about the Football League rather than just the usual top-flight suspects. Which is why we asked him to write about the Football League for us, on anything which caught his eye. A similar opportunity exists for all writers, here <fourfourtwo.com/forums >. Believe me, we’re watching, and the best writers will be noted.

For the record, neither Mike nor Gregg receive any payment for writing Up the Football League blogs. They do it for love of the game (the real game, beyond the usual star names) and because they think readers might find something amusing. On this occasion, it seems several of you haven’t. For that we can only apologise, and try again.

Yours sincerely,

Gary

Gary Parkinson, Editor, FourFourTwo.com