Article by David CoatesJoin over 4,000 others and follow e-Spurs on Twitter!
My plan for my first article for e-Spurs was to try and make it a positive one. We all know it’s been a poor season. We haven’t lived up to expectations and my feelings have gone from being really positive after the first game against Palace to downright dejection on numerous occasions. But we are where we are and I wanted to write something to cheer the soul. But that was before Tim Sherwood’s press conference today (17/04/14).
I’ll start by giving a general summary of what Sherwood said. Firstly he was asked about Erik Lamela and if he would play this season in reaction to a report in The Daily Telegraph stating that the board were putting pressure on Sherwood to play him. His response wasn’t one along the lines of “Erik won’t play this season he is still injured but we have high hopes for him next season and we know he will become a great player for spurs”. Sherwood’s response was this “I’ve got my own ideas on who’s capable and whose not. With Erik the jury’s still out on him”. What a confidence filler for the player and a deliberately swipe at Baldini who signed him.
The next point was around the Europa League. Sherwood’s view on this competition “It’s a benefit not to qualify, the last time Spurs qualified for the Champions League we were not in the Europa league. The stats prove this”. Not a clever response considering the board want European football and that the little Englander attitude towards the Europa League isn’t shared by the rest of Europe and will be an attractive prospect for a new coach coming in.
The final point I want to refer to is when questioned on Gareth Bales goal the previous night Sherwood responded “That’s business as usual for Gareth Bale if he was still here we would be challenging for the league. The two best players on the pitch were Bale and Modric and that says everything”. Sherwood is clearly questioning the board and their ambitions. Why couldn’t he just say yes it was a great goal and leave it at that? To pull Modric into the response was a confrontational dig at the club’s board and Levy in particular.
Now those of you who are reading this are probably thinking “Well what’s the problem he is saying what we are thinking?”.But that for me is missing the point. It’s pretty clear that Sherwood is going in the summer. The board has made that clear and Levy has told him of that fact. So why is Sherwood still here? In no other business would a manager who is on the way out remain in that business so why is it happening at Spurs. The manager or head coach has a platform such as press conferences to spout what they feel and a lot of this will be vindictive and planned especially when you have effectively been sacked. Sherwood should have gone after the Liverpool game at Anfield when he refused to leave his seat in the stand and manage his team. Today he basically gave the two finger salute to his bosses.
My view is that whatever you feel towards your employers, you keep it to yourself and behind closed doors. As the Head Coach Sherwood is the figure head of the club. Sherwood has to publically play the party line in regards to Levy. The result of today is that Sherwood has now become toxic. He has fully exposed Daniel Levy and Levy will not like that one bit. Publically questioning the clubs record signing, making excuses for not qualifying for the Europa League already despite it having a Champions League place next season and finally referring back to the sales of Modric and Bale, questioning the boards ambition for the club will have left Levy fuming and shows his grooming by Harry Redknapop includes his style of dealing with the media. Sherwood has brought David Brent and The Office to White Hart Lane. From his behaviour on the sideline to his cringe worthy interviews he has brought the club into disrepute and he needs to go now before the Fulham game.
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Quite agree, he's the type to do as much damage as he can before he goes so why hasn't he been shown the door already?
ReplyDeleteYes, TS spouts what we're all generally thinking. The crime is, however, is that he, in the position to do something about things, has done little to get a 'team' shaping together.
ReplyDeleteIt's also easy (and very naff from a manager) to say Bale should have sold for more, simply because he scored, in a rare instance since moving to RM, one of his typical Tottenham type goals. The crime the club should be focusing on, and the foolish Sherwood should know this, is not what we actually got for Bale, but how we spent the money afterwards ..and it was badly!
The damage has already been done by AVB sherwood has had a hard time u can't blame him for how he reacts he wasn't ready for the job simple.
ReplyDeleteFar too much is being read into this. Football managers are not media professionals, they say the wrong thing and are inconsistent in their comments. Listen to any football press conference and you will hear a load of self contradictions. Anyway, how can it be controversial to say the 'jury is out on Lamela'? To say anything else would be ridiculous; he's hardly played for us yet! He's injured all the time, poor lad. TS knows Lamela is quality, but when he plays he'll have to show the desire and effectiveness to be a top Prem performer. All Tim is saying is the obvious. What do people want, Henry Kissinger ('We didn't bomb Cambodia')?
ReplyDeleteAs for Bale and Modric, my two favourite players in the last 10 years, Tim is not having a go at anyone. He's just pointing out that had they not left Spurs would be a top 2 or 3 side. Again, obvious. And they didn't leave because Spurs lack ambition. They left because when Real Madrid calls, players always always say 'yes'.
Any of the high profile names being bandied about as the next Spurs manager, would not have done any better if they had been employed the day after AVB left...TS is NOT a yes man, he wears his heart on his sleeve and says it as he see`s it...quite refreshing in this day and age..He`s a real leader, which is something this club lacks...he should DEFINATELY stay on ..see out that extra year, he won`t let the club down..,but Levy being Levy probably won t keep him and must be thinking it`s time to shoot ourselves in the foot again.......PATHETIC.....!!!
ReplyDeleteDo not understand why Spurs fans dislike TS so much, he has the best winning ratio than any other Spurs Manager before him, as a rookie manager, he has done well given the circumstances that he faced.
ReplyDeleteI quite like his honest and straight forward responses and assessment. Hope he will continue to be Spurs Manager next season, he deserves more time.
I like making comparisons. Here's one for La Liga matches.
ReplyDeleteGareth Bale: 25 matches - 14 goals - 12 assists - 81 shots - 1 goal per 5.8 shots - 17.7% of Real Madrid's 79 goals
Giovanni Dos Santos: 26 matches - 10 Goals - 7 assists - 52 shots - 1 goal per 5.2 shots.
19.2% of Villarreal's 52 goals.
.
You guys just don't like honesty.TS is great and should be staying another season.The problem is Levy and Baldini.Too many football managers are not straight forward when asked about penalties etc.A pity we cant have more up front comment in the world of sport
ReplyDeleteTS is a liability. When he took over, the most obvious move was to reinstate Adebayor. But after that.....what has he achieved or improved? Our defence was fairly watertight in the first dozen games ....AVBs tactic was to concentrate on that until the new players bedded in. Dull boring football but we werent an embarassment. But under TS we get zero defensive ability, an underperforming midfield apart from eriksen and the occasional heroics of adebayor. We have gone backwards when we should have been improving. We have no obvious pattern of play...no settled system .....no confidence......no teamwork. And a manager who shoots his mouth off at random. Apparently we dont want Europa League so we can "do a Liverpool" next year....hold on, no we do want it.....just a minute, we do want to finish 5th. No wonder the players are confused!.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really interesting is how people can have polar opposite views on our coach TS.People interpret what he says and does in totally opposing ways.Which view is the right one?Both can seem right depending how you are feeling at the time and your general mindset .The deciding factor at the end of the day is of course results and he doesn't seem to have done all that badly for someone without much experience in the coaching role.I really like the passion he shows.You can see the hurt when things go badly on the pitch.He feels it like all the fans do and he shows it.He lacks real experience but his heart is in the right place.He's a coach much closer to the fans than most.Spurs do need a top class manager to seriously challenge for honours but I think Tim is doing ok as interim and with support I believe could even do better
ReplyDelete