Re: Tim Sherwood - Head Coach
Sherwood is all about himself and to be fair to him, he is just the fall-guy in this. He clearly wanted the opportunity to be head coach and was only afforded that opportunity as Levy's prime target, LVG would not join until after the World Cup. Levy has probably thought, well lets give it to Sherwood to steady the ship until season's end, anything we get out of this season is a bonus, plus I believe Sherwood has become a bit of a disruptive influence at the club in terms of being a 'shadow' behind any manager in the job with clear designs on the top role himself. I don't think it helped AVB, to be fair, to have Sherwood around. Not that i'm blaming one or the other, its just that by his very presence, having someone that was making a name for himself behind the scenes and was being talked about in the press as being groomed for the manager's job, didn't help the current manager's credibility.
Levy probably thought now is a good time to assess whether Sherwood has what it takes, now or in the future and if he doesn't an excuse to either get rid, or stick him back to youth level with a more defined role and less influence.
Sherwood is an emotional character, but seems to be emotional in a rather reactive way, rather than the calculating, intelligence way that Redknapp was, for example.
Sherwood reminds me of many of us on this forum, letting his emtions get the better of him and spouting nonsense that often contradicts itself.
In January, Sherwood admits himself that Levy offered him the opportunity to strengthen. He declined, stating that the first-team squad was good enough. Why he didn't at least sort out the left-back and centre-back situation, i'm not sure, but he stated that the first-team squad was good enough to work with.
To an extent i agree with this and what was needed was greater stability, but given our subsequent performances against City & Chelsea, my opinion is that the squad badly needs some experience and leadership quality to be mixed in with the young and talented squad that we have.
Sherwood also put Nabil Bentaleb in the team and he has done pretty well. I mean he's not the next coming of Messi, but he has done enough to suggest he has a very bright future at the club. Sherwood claims he played him because he can trust him. He also has had Veljkovic (spelling) occupying a spot on the bench along with Shaquile Coulhirst and Laste Dombaxe from the youth set up.
Sherwood had the option of playing these players more, but chose not to, presumably because he felt that the players in the first team squad were worthy of his trust over these other guys? The same first team squad that did not need any work on in the January window?
Sherwood laid into his players after Chelsea, saying he couldn't trust some of them. But which ones? Bentaleb he could clearly trust, given his own comments. Adebayor was reinstated under Sherwood, so presumably he could trust him. Lennon has been in the team constantly under Sherwood, despite poor form, when other options are available such as Chadli and Townsend, so clearly he must trust him. Sigurdsson was resinstated as soon as he was fit, so presumably this is another one Sherwood could trust?
The point i'm making is that I see what some are seeing as a passionate, thought-provoking and welcome commentary on the state of the club. What I see in this is just Sherwood mouthing off at everyone he can and deflecting blame in reaction to a bad defeat where he sees his chances of a permanent manager's job at Spurs dissapearing faster than a ball-boy after a Spurs free-kick.
