Promotion is only the first target as Sturrock builds on solid foundations

'We're treading very, very softly. You can sometimes get there too quickly and the cards come tumbling down'

Paul Sturrock offers me a pudgy hand. It is hard to recognise in him the whippet-like striker I used to watch at Tannadice in the early 1980s, when he and Dundee United were in their prime, and I was a student at nearby St Andrews University. He is not so much a shadow of his former self, as several times the shadow of his former self. But he has the same soulful brown eyes, the same winning manner, and the same nickname. He was "Luggy" then and he is "Luggy" now.

"A player called Andy Rowland was given it as a nickname, but he didn't like it so he fobbed it off on me. He said: 'Look, he's got bigger ears than me'." I tell him wistfully that I was there for some of those magical Tannadice nights, and ask what became of such names as Davie Dodds, the George Clooney of Scottish football? "Doddsy's running a pub in Dundee," he says. "Maurice Malpas is still at Dundee United, as first-team coach, and Paul Hegarty coaches the reserves.

"David Narey's retired, lives off his pension. Eamonn Bannon runs a guest house, Ralph Milne works in a pub in Bristol, Derek Stark's a policeman..." And he is squeezed into the tiny reception at Home Park, home of Plymouth Argyle, where he has been manager since November 2000.

When he arrived, having resigned 10 weeks earlier as manager of his beloved Dundee United, Argyle were second from bottom of the Third Division. Fans began to think the unthinkable, that Argyle might even slip out of the Football League. Not since 1588 had anything loomed quite so ominously on the Plymouth horizon. But, like the Spanish Armada, the grim prospect was soon demolished.

Sturrock set about his new job with characteristic verve and Argyle finished last season safely in mid-table. Today, they stand proudly clear at the top of the Third Division. For Sir Francis Drake, read Luggy Sturrock. At his first game in charge, the attendance was 3,200. Against Mansfield Town 10 days ago, it was 14,700 – the fourth-highest attendance in the Nationwide League that day, behind those at Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, and Huddersfield Town.

"It was important to use last season twofold," he says, explaining how he has transformed the club's fortunes. "First, we had to make sure we were not relegated. Secondly, we did the groundwork last year for our progress this year. I'm not taking anything for granted, but I have brought in players from higher leagues, who have tasted a higher standard of football.

"I did the same at St Johnstone. When we were in the [Scottish] First Division I brought in a team that I knew could handle the Premier League, and when we did go up we finished fourth one year and third the next. You can't keep going down the road of transition. If you build a team to win the Third that you know is not good enough for the Second, then you've got to rebuild, which financially drains the football club. You have to nurture players good enough for the next league up."

All of which is easily said, but still takes some doing. Sturrock's most expensive purchase is Mickey Evans, who cost £30,000 from Bristol Rovers. Using the agents he worked with in Scotland, he has imported a French goalkeeper, Romain Larrieu, and a French midfielder, David Friio.

"I took a chance on David. I'd only seen him for a week in training, but I put him in for the derby [Sturrock pronounces "derby" the Dundee way – "dare-by"] against Exeter, we won the game, and he's never looked back. I've been lucky. Everybody makes mistakes in the transfer market, and I'm no different, but most of my signings have flourished. I've paid out £45,000, and sold one player for £10,000, so I'm £35,000 in hock."

He has also cut the squad dramatically, from 29 players to 21. "That way we can pay them slightly more but still keep inside the budget."

And what, I wonder, is the realistic extent of Argyle's ambition? The ground is being redeveloped and will ultimately be a handsome all-seater stadium, capacity 20,000, certainly worthy of First Division football.

"We've got a five-year plan here," says Sturrock. "And that is to consolidate in the Second Division. We want to ensure a very, very vibrant Second Division team, and then we'll move on to the next five-year plan. We have a new, ambitious board, but we're treading very, very softly. You can sometimes get there too quickly and the cards come tumbling down."

And the next obvious question: what of Sturrock himself? The next Premiership club to sack its manager could do worse than to look in a south-westerly direction, I venture. He smiles. "If AC Milan come for me tomorrow than I'd probably go, but I've signed a long contract. Whatever's ahead of me's ahead of me."

So we turn instead to what's behind him. He made his Dundee United debut in 1974, aged 17, under the stern eye of Jim McLean. "He was a huge influence on me," says Sturrock. "There has never been a finer tactician. Never. You just don't take a team of young boys and get them into a European Cup semi-final [in 1984 against Roma; United won the first-leg 2-0 on a famous night at Tannadice, but lost the second leg 3-0 amid claims that the referee, who was later investigated for corruption, was bent] and a Uefa Cup final [in 1987 against Gothenburg, which United lost after beating Barcelona in the semi], not unless you're in the genius category.

"In fact I was very close to being released in my first couple of years. Jim came to me and said 'You're a running-type striker. If you're going to benefit you have to learn to take it into your feet.' So he had me training with [his assistant] Walter Smith every afternoon, working on shielding, turning. He gave me my career. Because people knew I had pace and wanted the ball over the top, but then they realised that I was a little bit naughty, and could do both."

Accordingly, Rangers and Celtic made frequent enquiries about Sturrock's availability, and West Ham United made an actual offer, but the boy born in Pitlochry spent his entire playing career just a little further along the Tay. "That's maybe something I regret now, not going to West Ham. Instead of working I could be on the golf course now. But there was great team spirit at Dundee United, and remember they were considered one of the top 10 or 15 clubs in Europe. Everybody was talking about us, and when English clubs were banned we were prime-time TV. It was great being in on all that."

He also won 20 Scottish caps, although his predicament at international level was summed up by Jock Stein, who said to him: "You've done well for me, son. But when Kenny [Dalglish] is fit, you're sub."

I ask Sturrock whether he approves of last week's appointment of Berti Vogts as Scotland coach? "I'm a great believer that the assistant manager should be Scottish, but Berti will bring something useful to the table. Craig [Brown] did a fantastic job, but it's an ageing team. Now we need to put out young teams, and build and build and lose and lose, until one day we win and win. Actually, I think the lack of money in the Scottish game will be a benefit at international level. Because finances are so tight, teams have small squads and are relying on youth. Loads of teams in Scotland are playing 17- and 18-year-olds, and I think the next manager but one will reap the rewards."

Might it be him? "I think there'll come a time when international management appeals," he replies, deadpan, "whether in Scotland or somewhere else. Playing four games a year instead of 50. But it's not now."

Sturrock retired from playing at 32 – three years too early, he thinks now – to become Dundee United's youth team coach. And in 1994 he was appointed manager at struggling St Johnstone, nine points adrift at the foot of the Premier League. "There were three going down that season, and we eventually missed staying up by one goal. But it was probably the best thing that could have happened. We went down, dismantled the team, and started anew. And the chairman gave me time. I'm a great believer in long-term management."

It occurs to me that this is rather like a turkey saying that he's a great believer in vegetarianism, but Sturrock elaborates eloquently. "Clubs like Manchester City, Wolves, are under pressure all the time, pressure to buy players, pressure to change the manager, so they're in a constant state of transition. Look at the clubs who ride the pressure and stick with their managers. George Burley [at Ipswich Town] is a prime example. So is Alex Ferguson." The Manchester United manager, adds Sturrock, was one of the first to offer support during one of the least pleasant episodes of his career. On 14 October, 1995, when St Johnstone were playing at Tannadice of all places, Sturrock appeared to collapse in the dug-out. The Scottish media decided that he'd had a serious heart attack; in fact he hyper-ventilated.

"I was shouting and getting annoyed and not breathing properly, that's all it was. When I missed a match with a virus a couple of weeks ago it was hyped up in Scotland as a relapse. But I've had all the tests. My heart is fine."

Whatever, he was rushed off to hospital, where Ferguson – who had briefly been his international manager, and had heard the news on the radio – was the first on the phone. "He gave me a couple of pointers that I should maybe live by, and I've stuck by that ever since."

Surely the famously volatile Ferguson didn't counsel serenity in the face of frustration? "What he said is between him and me. In any case, Bosman has killed the old management style. You shout at somebody and two days later their agent's on the phone wanting them away. It's killed the idea that you can use a heavy hand. My philosophy now is that I wait until Monday morning, when I've calmed down and the player's calmed down."

To Jim McLean, this is a philosophy as foreign as Wittgenstein's, but in other respects Sturrock has tried to emulate his old boss, even taking over at Tannadice to the consternation of his nearest and dearest. After all, he was enjoying life at St Johnstone, and the club seemed to be going places (to the Scottish FA Cup final the following season, in fact). "My wife's recommendation was not to go. My assistant said not to go. Anybody I phoned said not to. So what happened? I went."

He did not enjoy managing the club he had supported as a boy, played for all his career, and to which he remains so devoted that he has had his office at Plymouth Argyle painted tangerine, black and white. "The fans wanted success straight away, and I knew I couldn't give it to them. I was committed to putting a young team on the pitch, and I knew that for two or three years we would have to bite and scratch at the wrong end of the table. But I felt bad results much harder there. And I was tired. I'd been in football a long time. I needed a wee rest."

After just the second game of last season, a 3-0 defeat by Hibs, he abruptly resigned. Over the ensuing 10 weeks he was offered two coaching jobs overseas, and even considered becoming an agent. But when he was sounded out about the vacant Plymouth job, he decided to apply, and was duly offered an interview. "So I looked on the map to see where it was, then off we popped."

Sturrock had long nurtured an ambition to manage in England, not that he was necessarily seeking to leave Scotland quite so emphatically. Dundee to Plymouth is a hell of a journey in more ways than one. "It was a bit of a culture shock at first," he says. Although his son, Blair, is now in the Argyle squad and doing well, his wife has taken time to adjust to the Devon coast. "She could do with a wee part-time job," he says. "But we like the heat."