New awards for managers could have brought Paul Sturrock to prominence.

And one of my tasks as vice president of the League Managers' Association is to help co-ordinate them.

The awards, sponsored by watch makers Tissot, are different to all the others, which are usually based on the performance in each of four divisions over the previous month.

For these all 92 managers are in the same league.

It is the most objective means of assessing their performance because it takes all league and cup matches into account and awards points for all-round good management.

In other words, more points for away results plus points for clean sheets, goals scored and consecutive wins or draws. It is based entirely on statistical performance, not opinions.

There is a running league table which at the moment is not surprisingly headed by Arsene Wenger, but there is also a quarterly award, the first of which I presented last October to Claudio Ranieri of Chelsea.

The second was won by a certain Paul Sturrock, who then was at Plymouth, proving the value of the system where someone doing well in the lower divisions can exceed the performances of the boys from the big stuff.

Undoubtedly this brought Paul to the attention of football people around the country and, who knows, possibly gained him his present job as Saints boss.

I know from my own experience managing out in the sticks at places like Grimsby that you may be doing well but the feeling is that no one notices because of where you are.

This award has changed all that.

The third-quarter award this week went to another lower division manager, Andy King of Swindon Town.

So I took a lot of pleasure in joining Paul and Andy this week for the hand-over and I was able to point out that, in the overall league table, Andy is presently in the top 20, with only five Premiership managers above him - familiar names like Arsene, Claudio, Sir Alex, Sir Bobby and a certain Paul, who is lying third in a table headed by Wenger with 155 points.

Then comes Ranieri with 144 and Sturrock with 141. Let's hope Paul can go on and maintain his high position at Southampton!

Seeing what's happened to Paul is a great incentive for Andy. I went from Southampton to make a second, more formal, presentation on the pitch before his game against Grimsby.

The crowd at Swindon was only 7,000, but, as I said to him, the surroundings may not be as grand, but for the last three months his performances have made him the most successful manager in England, which is something of which he can be truly proud.

Neither Sturrock nor King are overnight sensations.

They have been working away at the lower levels for years, and all of this experience helps when you reach the top flight.

20th March 2004