The biggest fault of Harry Redknapp’s career was the fact that he could never stop talking. During Redknapp’s time at Spurs he brought Tim Sherwood back to the club and his protégée is guilty of the same negative trait.
Sherwood’s inability to shut up was a definite contributor to the fact that he was sacked at the end of the season. Much like a jilted lover, he is unable to shrug his shoulders and let it go. Every time he opens his mouth, an opinion about Spurs pops out.
Today he claimed that during his time at Tottenham he was ‘very successful, both as a development coach and as a manager.’
Considering the amount of players that have made the transition to the first-team you’ll get no argument from me on the first point, but I wouldn’t describe his spell an manager as ‘very successful’.
Sherwood keeps banging on about his win percentage, yet raw stats do not tell the whole story. Plenty of games were won but the ones that were lost stick in the mind. Sherwood’s defeats were heavy ones in which the side often seemed to completely capitulate – Manchester City won 5-1 at White Hart Lane, while Chelsea and Liverpool both won 4-0 at home. Sherwood’s last loss as Spurs manager, a 2-0 defeat at West Ham was a truly pathetic and spineless performance.
The truth of Sherwood’s brief reign at Tottenham is that he seemed to have little in the way of tactical acumen, with no clear idea of a philosophy coming through on the pitch during his time in charge. Different formations came and went, while the personnel changed on a weekly basis. It felt like Sherwood was making it up as he went along, which is not a real criticism considering that he was far too inexperienced to have been given the job in the first place.
The naivety extended to him publicly moaning about his own players. It was Sherwood’s way of making himself look tough but considering that the players knew that he was likely to be eventually sacked, this was never going to work. Instead he lost the support of the dressing room.
Sherwood might have a bigger win percentage that Mauricio Pochettino but only a fool would rather have him as manager. Under the Argentine the team has a clear way of playing and look like a united group.
Rather than keep talking about Spurs, Sherwood would be do better to worry about his own team and their fight against relegation. If Villa were to go down, no amount of words could disguise the fact that he would have failed in his task.
After what he has done for the youth team it’s a shame he didn’t stay in his old job. Not just for spurs but for England too
Sherwood has gone and if his tenure bothered you that much it is time to get over it.
What I will say is that poch is the perfect match for spurs and their philosophy. He will make them better
Whats up with you lot? Tim Sherwood left you in the summer but your still obsessed about him. He did well with you during the short time he was with you end of.
Sherwood’s moved on so its about time you lot did too.
Hi Dan,
That is a well written and cogently argued leader. I am a Villa fan and am looking forward to the game on Saturday. From a Villa perspective we see many of the characteristics which you have described on a daily basis. But, and it is a huge but, after 4 confidence-sapping years and the turgid football that went with it, Tim, through his personality, has infused the team and fans with confidence. Villa have scored 13 Premiership goals in Sherwood’s 7 games, compared to 12 in 25 games under the previous (nameless) incumbent. The draw against QPR was perhaps disappointing, but it was the most exciting game of football seen at VP for over 4 years.
It seems Villa are in process of being taken over and that must put a question mark over Tim’s future. But if he keeps us up, which the previous manager would have failed to do, I would very much want him to remain with us, bring in his own staff and a have transfer window to choose his own players.
Good luck to Spurs for the future- for many Villans, Spurs is our favourite London team. We never forget that Blanchflower was a Villan before he moved to N17.
Best regards.
Herts Villan.
Sherwood is a fraud. His win percentage was worse than any other spurs manager once cup games were included for example. He also was not responsible for the spurs youth set up. He coached the U21’s so the older young players had, at most, just 1-2 seasons under him. Some of them he never or very rarely coached as they were injured or out on loan or both (Mason, Kane, Carroll). His one true discovery was Bentaleb who joined at 17 and went into the u21s and didnt go out on loan.Alex Inglethorpe, now at Liverpool, was far more Iinfluential with the young plsyers who came through the system at Spurs as schoolboys…..Pritchard, Kane etc. Sherwood, or the newspapers on his behalf, is now trying to take credit for players who wouldn’t have known him at all……Winks, Onomah, CCV etc……as if Sherwood ran all youth reams from under 15’s to U21s. Sherwood did a good job for Spurs but not a brilliant one and he is having an impact on Villa. But its short-term injection of confidence and energy not long term team building. Hes the next Neil Warnock not the next Alex Ferguson.
As a Villa fan I agree with the poster that suggests he should shut up about Spurs and concentrate on his current team. We had the same problem with houllier and Liverpool. As for the weekend I expect Spurs to win. We have too many championship level players and that’s where we’ll end up. However, I feel better going into the championship with Sherwood rather than the negative Lambert.