Paul Sturrock

**Paul Whitehead Sturrock** (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former football coach and former player. He has played for Dundee United and Scotland national team.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|Scottish Cup|colspan="2"|League Cup|colspan="2"|Europe|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="15"|Dundee United|1974–75|Division One|12|6|–|–|1|0|13|6|||
|1975–76|rowspan=14|Premier Division|17|3|2|0|–|5|1|27|5|||
|1976–77|36|15|1|1|5|1|–|42|17|||||
|1977–78|33|3|4|1|8|3|2|1|47|8||||
|1978–79|33|6|1|0|2|1|2|0|38|7||||
|1979–80|33|4|2|1|9|6|4|0|48|11||||
|1980–81|35|13|7|1|11|9|4|0|57|23||||
|1981–82|31|15|5|2|11|6|7|1|54|24||||
|1982–83|28|8|1|0|9|7|7|1|45|16||||
|1983–84|17|4|3|2|2|0|5|0|27|6||||
|1984–85|30|14|6|2|6|2|6|2|48|20||||
|1985–86|31|8|5|2|5|0|5|3|46|13||||
|1986–87|30|6|6|0|3|0|11|0|50|6||||
|1987–88|9|3|–|3|2|3|2|15|7|||||
|1988–89|9|1|5|0|–|–|14|1||||||

### International

|National team|Year|Apps|Goals||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="6"|Scotland|1981|4|1|
|1982|6|1|||
|1983|3|0|||
|1984|2|1|||
|1986|4|0|||
|1987|1|0|||

- _Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Sturrock goal_.

|scope="col"|No.|scope="col"|Date|scope="col"|Venue|scope="col"|Opponent|scope="col"|Score|scope="col"|Result|scope="col"|Competition|scope="col" class="unsortable"||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|18 November 1981|Estadio da Luz, Lisbon||1–0|1–2|1982 FIFA World Cup qualification||||||||||
|2|13 October 1982|Hampden Park, Glasgow||2–0|2–0|UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying||||||||||
|3|12 September 1984|Hampden Park, Glasgow||4–1|6–1|Friendly match||||||||||

### Managerial record

Research by football economists Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski found Sturrock to be among the highest performing managers in English football. The measure was based on game success after allowing for the clubs’ wage bills.

|rowspan=2|Team|rowspan=2|Nat|rowspan=2|From|rowspan=2|To|colspan=5|Record|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align=left|St Johnstone||align=left|1 August 1993|align=left|5 September 1998||||
|align=left|Dundee United||align=left|5 September 1998|align=left|7 August 2000||||
|align=left|Plymouth Argyle||align=left|31 October 2000|align=left|4 March 2004||||
|align=left|Southampton||align=left|4 March 2004|align=left|23 August 2004||||
|align=left|Sheffield Wednesday||align=left|23 September 2004|align=left|19 October 2006||||
|align=left|Swindon Town||align=left|7 November 2006|align=left|27 November 2007||||
|align=left|Plymouth Argyle||align=left|27 November 2007|align=left|10 December 2009||||
|align=left|Southend United||align=left|5 July 2010|align=left|24 March 2013||||
|align=left|Yeovil Town||align=left|9 April 2015|align=left|1 December 2015||||

### As a player

**Dundee United**
- Scottish Football League Premier Division: 1982–83
- Scottish League Cup: 1979–80, 1980–81; runner-up: 1981–82, 1984–85
- UEFA Cup runner-up: 1986–87
- Scottish Cup runner-up: 1980–81, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88

**Scotland**
- The Rous Cup: 1985

### As a manager

**St Johnstone**
- Scottish League First Division (second tier): 1996–97

**Plymouth Argyle**
- Football League Third Division: 2001–02
- Football League Second Division: 2003–04

**Sheffield Wednesday**
- Football League One play-offs: 2004–05

**Swindon Town**
- Football League Two promotion: 2006–07

**Individual**
- Football League Third Division Manager of the Year: 2001–02
- Football League Second Division Manager of the Year: 2003–04
- LMA Managers Performance League: January 2004

**Awards**
- Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductee: 2019

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Paul Sturrock
- **fullname**: Paul Whitehead Sturrock
- **birth place**: Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Ellon, Scotland
- **position**: Forward (association football), Striker
- **youthclubs1**: Grandtully Vale
- **youthyears2**: 1972–1973
- **youthclubs2**: Vale of Atholl F.C., Vale of Atholl
- **youthyears3**: 1973–1974
- **youthclubs3**: Bankfoot Athletic F.C., Bankfoot Athletic
- **years1**: 1974–1989
- **clubs1**: Dundee United F.C., Dundee United
- **caps1**: 385
- **goals1**: 109
- **nationalyears1**: 1977–1982
- **nationalteam1**: Scotland national under-21 football team, Scotland under-21
- **nationalcaps1**: 9
- **nationalgoals1**: 0
- **nationalyears2**: 1981–1987
- **nationalteam2**: Scotland national football team, Scotland
- **nationalcaps2**: 20
- **nationalgoals2**: 3
- **manageryears1**: 1993–1998
- **managerclubs1**: St Johnstone F.C., St Johnstone
- **manageryears2**: 1998–2000
- **managerclubs2**: Dundee United F.C., Dundee United
- **manageryears3**: 2000–2004
- **managerclubs3**: Plymouth Argyle F.C., Plymouth Argyle
- **manageryears4**: 2004
- **managerclubs4**: Southampton F.C., Southampton
- **manageryears5**: 2004–2006
- **managerclubs5**: Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Sheffield Wednesday
- **manageryears6**: 2006–2007
- **managerclubs6**: Swindon Town F.C., Swindon Town
- **manageryears7**: 2007–2009
- **managerclubs7**: Plymouth Argyle F.C., Plymouth Argyle
- **manageryears8**: 2010–2013
- **managerclubs8**: Southend United F.C., Southend United
- **manageryears9**: 2015
- **managerclubs9**: Yeovil Town F.C., Yeovil Town