SIR Roy Gardner is the new Chairman of Plymouth Argyle Football Club after obtaining a 13% share of the club with business associate Keith Todd.

Sir Roy has taken over from Paul Stapleton, who will now become the new Vice-chairman. K&K Shonan will be the majority shareholders with 38% of the club, and they will be represented on the Board by George Synan.

On a momentous day for Argyle, former Manchester United chairman Sir Roy revealed his delight at returning to the game that he dearly loves.

He said: "I would like to thank Paul [Stapleton] who has provided great leadership over the last decade and delivered what I believe is unprecedented success.

"Not only that, he has created a great platform for the future, upon which we can now build. I am delighted he will be staying on and help us as Vice-chairman.

"Anyone who knows me, or of me, will know of my passion for football. Nobody should be surprised when I say that I have been looking to get back into the game for a little while.

"I left Manchester United back in 2005, so it has been four years now. This has proved the opportunity I have been looking for.

"It is attractive, not least because it gives me the opportunity to work again with a close friend and business colleague. We have worked together successfully over a number of years and Keith Todd is a lifelong Plymouth fan.

"It is also the prospect of turning Plymouth Argyle into a Premiership club, hopefully in the not too distant future and see what we can to do to develop the ground - it has got great potential.

"We have some ideas. They are ambitious but our first priority is to stabilise what we have and lay the foundations for the future.

"That is why we are backing our current manager Paul Sturrock, who, like Paul Stapleton, has really delivered success to this club.

"Now, it is all about getting down to work. By Christmas, we will have prepared a very detailed five-year plan and that will obviously include the playing and managerial staff. It will encompass how we intend to increase the playing and the staff budget.

"We would also like to give Argyle a strong youth academy and we have already talked about links with Japan and North America.

"We are going to develop the ground and this will have appeal locally and globally, and that will enable us to drive up some further commercial income and therefore an increase to the funding of a player budget.

"We want to reach out to the local community and make match-day at Home Park an essential part of the calendar.

"We also attend to have discussions with the council to see if we can develop Home Park into a centre for sporting excellence.

"Keith's skills will help us to use technology to widen our communication with the fanbase, both locally and globally.

"Success on the field is obviously hugely important to everybody involved with the club and a vital component of our future plans.

"The club's footballing and commercial interests are very closely interlinked. We have got some exciting ideas and what we need to do now is get our jackets off, and get down to work.

"I am delighted to have this opportunity and I am really looking forward to working with my Board colleagues and the management team.

"We need to have one or two discussions about the current squad. It is far too early to say, but it is our intention to increase the playing budget as we increase the commercial revenue.

"I am very excited and I will spend as much time down here as possible.It is fair to say that I am a busy man but football is my passion, and when you're passionate about something, you always find the time.

"I came down to see games last year and I saw some games in London. I will see a lot of the games.

"We have hinted at how we are going to approach the fan-base.

"Firstly, who are the fans. If you were to ask how many fans have we got, Keith would probably say about a million, but we need to know who they are, so we can then start to communicate with them and see how we can work together to improve the revenues of this club.

"We want to talk to local industry and commerce, and see how we can work on sponsorship, hospitality, events, conferences, all the usual things that will generate further income for this club.

"If we want to be a Premiership club, we certainly needed to do something about this ground, so it will be an integral part of our forward planning."