PLYMOUTH Argyle have acquired a new chairman – and a new regime in the boardroom at Home Park.

Manager Paul Sturrock has been told that he can look forward to an increased playing budget in the months ahead – and the fans have been told that Argyle's new men in charge want to see the Coca-Cola Championship team reach the Barclays Premier League within five years.

After eight years at the helm of Devon's top football club, Paul Stapleton stepped down as chairman of the Pilgrims yesterday. His successor is Sir Roy Gardner, formerly chairman of Manchester United plc. Gardner is at the head of a seven-man board which consists of both new and continuing directors. The fresh faces in the boardroom are Gardner, Keith Todd CBE and George Synan.

Stapleton, who has become deputy chairman, remains on the board. So do former vice-chairman Robert Dennerly, Tony Wrathall and Japanese businessman Yasuaki Kagami.

Kagami's company, KKShonan, now owns 38 per cent of the shares of the Pilgrims' parent company, Plymouth Argyle (Holdings) Limited. Kagami, who joined the Pilgrims' board in April last year, has taken his stake up from 20 per cent to its new level. His ally on the new board is American businessman Synan, a director of KKShonan.

Kagami has made only two visits to Plymouth since he joined Argyle's board, and he was not at Home Park yesterday. Synan has been a more frequent visitor to the club over the past 15 months, however, and he will supervise Kagami's investment in the Pilgrims.

Gardner and Todd, who is an Argyle supporter, have set up a joint-venture company, KKC, which has purchased a 13 per-cent stake in the Pilgrims. Stapleton, Dennerly and Wrathall have reduced their shareholdings, while KKShonan and KKC have secured options to increase their stakes in the club during the coming year.

The new board will publish a five-year business plan later this year, and has already announced plans to maximise the value of the club's brand on a global scale. Todd, whose professional expertise is in the telecommunications field, is the driving force behind the quest to harness new technology to boost revenue streams and to spread the word about the Pilgrims.

The Home Park outfit have launched a new interactive website – www.argyleinsider.com – and are also keen to enhance the club's facilities for spectators and players. Youth development is also a priority, according to the Pilgrims.

They want to provide and generate funds to launch both an Academy at Argyle, and training camps for youngsters from the Westcountry and further afield – Japan and the United States, in particular.

The Pilgrims are in the process of developing partnerships with two overseas football academies – one in Japan which is run by Argyle's president, former Japan striker Yasuhiko Okudera, and one in Los Angeles, California, which is run by Don Sheppard, an American businessman and football club president who has visited Plymouth this summer.

The Western Morning News revealed early last month that Gardner had been approached to become Argyle's chairman. The 63-year-old was born in Middlesex, and he supported Brentford as a lad. A keen footballer in his youth, he had a trial with Queen's Park Rangers. He lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Gardner's business career started at the British Aircraft Corporation, and he subsequently worked for GEC Marconi, Standard Telephones and Cables, and British Gas.

Gardner was chief executive of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, from 1997 until 2005, when he moved to the Compass Group. He is chairman of Compass, which is reported to be the world's biggest contract catering company. He was knighted in 2002 for services to the gas and electricity industries.

Gardner became chairman of Manchester United plc (the Premier League champions' parent company) in 2001. He stepped down in June 2005, when American businessman Malcolm Glazer bought a controlling interest in the Old Trafford club.

Todd was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but he spent much of his childhood in Plymouth. He attended schools in Hyde Park, Plymouth, and Plymstock. He started watching Argyle in the 1960s, and has followed their fortunes ever since.

Todd's business career has included spells with GEC Marconi, where he became Gardner's colleague and friend, and ICL.

Todd is currently executive chairman of FFastFill plc, a software and services company which operates in the financial industry, and non-executive chairman of Amino Technologies plc, a new media company which operates in the broadband telecommunications industry. He was non-executive chairman of internet company Easynet plc until 2006, when it was sold to BSkyB.