PAUL Sturrock has insisted that Plymouth Argyle have not received bids for winger Jason Puncheon – or for any other player at Home Park.

The Mirror newspaper claimed yesterday that both Charlton Athletic and Millwall had agreed to the idea of paying a fee of £150,000 for the flank man, who cost Argyle £250,000 when he was signed from Barnet a year ago, and that Puncheon was deciding which club to join.

The Pilgrims' manager has stated that the Mirror's story is wide of the mark, and is at best premature. "I think the Mirror should have phoned me," Sturrock said when he met the media at Home Park yesterday. "So far we have had no offers for Puncheon, and no offers for any of our players. They're a bit early with their presumptions."

Puncheon, who is under contract to the Pilgrims for a further two years, made only seven first-team appearances for the Devon side last season. He spent most of the campaign in Buckinghamshire, in two loan spells with Coca-Cola League One outfit Milton Keynes Dons – whom he left three years ago to join Barnet.

Given that he is under pressure to reduce the size of his squad, Sturrock is in no position to refuse to listen to any offers for Puncheon that may turn up, but the Scotsman has not yet ruled out finding room for the winger in his plans this term. "The slate has been wiped clean, as far as I'm concerned," the Argyle boss said. "Jason was a development player last year, and I felt it was appropriate to put him out into League One. He had played in League Two for several seasons.

"He went out and showed that he could handle League One, and he had several reasonable performances for us in the Championship. I think his progression is going in the right direction, and he has looked very sharp since he has come back into training [this month].

"Unless somebody really slaps me about the face with big money, the debate [about Puncheon] will be on the back-burner for at least one or two pre-season friendlies," the Plymouth chief added. "I'll make a conscious decision on what I see."

Puncheon's Argyle team-mate Jim Paterson is a transfer target for Aberdeen, who want to take the former Motherwell left-flank player back to the Scottish Premier League. Mark McGhee, the Dons' manager, has said that he is waiting for a response from Sturrock to his enquiry about Paterson, but the Pilgrims' boss delivered a message to his counterpart up at Pittodrie.

Sturrock said: "I'm waiting to hear from him. You can tell him that." The Argyle manager did admit to fielding enquiries – but no more than that – about some of his players. "We've had an awful lot of managers phoning up over the last week to find out about the availability of players, what their wages are like, that kind of scenario. But none of them have come up with anything concrete.

"Ninety-five per-cent of what you're reading at the moment [in terms of transfer speculation] is made up from agents and newspapers. It's a very easy way to drum up interest in your clients, and there's a lot of posturing going on."

Sturrock still expects outbound and inbound movement of players to take place at Home Park over the next month, but for now he wants every member of his squad to concentrate on earning a place in his first-choice side. He added: "We are a club that is over budget. We would also like to strengthen certain areas of the team.

"That means that players are likely to move on to enable us to bring others in, but the essence for the players now is getting themselves in the pecking order with their performances in training and in the friendlies," Sturrock said. "If they are to move on, it's still vital for them to have a pre-season under their belts."

Argyle's first-team squad have been back at work since last Wednesday, and the manager has been satisfied with what he has seen so far.

"So far, we've picked up no injuries, and we've brought the ball in very, very quickly," Sturrock said. "The modern footballer is a different beast from when I played. These people look after themselves, and the catch-up has not been too hard. We're very pleased with the progress that we're making.

"They don't look out of sorts, fitness wise, and the ball work is putting an edge to them. Every player is looking keen and ready to go."

Today, Sturrock will take a break from working on the training ground to have his first formal meeting with representatives of the Pilgrims' restructured board of directors.

Sir Roy Gardner replaced Paul Stapleton as Argyle chairman last week, and the manager will hope to gain an idea of how the transfer of power will alter his playing budget. Sturrock disclosed: "The big discussions will be tomorrow, and I hope that things will start to pick up very quickly after that."

Argyle have added another friendly match to their pre-season schedule. The Pilgrims will visit Zamaretto Southern League club Tiverton Town on Monday, August 3 (7.45pm). Sturrock is unlikely to send a full-strength first XI to Ladysmead.