Sherwood 'bleeds colour of club'

Tim Sherwood is delighted to have been given the opportunity by Tottenham
26 December 2013

Tim Sherwood says he is proud and honoured to be the new head coach of Tottenham.

Spurs took the surprise decision to appoint Sherwood as Andre Villas-Boas' successor on Monday.

The 44-year-old has no experience of first-team management, but he was selected ahead of the likes of Louis Van Gaal, Fabio Capello and Frank De Boer, who had all been linked with the position.

Sherwood played for Tottenham for four years and he has been part of the coaching set-up since 2008 though, so there is no doubt that the club is very close to his heart.

He hopes his connection with Tottenham will help him navigate the difficult waters that lie ahead.

Speaking for the first time since he signed an 18-month contract with the club, Sherwood told Spurs TV: "It's an honour to be head coach of this top club.

"It's a club that means an awful lot to me and a proud moment.

"If you cut me in half, I bleed the colour of the club. It means an awful lot to me. Blood is thicker than water, as they say.

"I've known it from the grass roots right up to the first team, worked at every level of the football club and played here, so I know it better than most.

"Hopefully that will stand me in good stead taking this club forward as head coach."

Sherwood was handed the role of interim manager following the sacking of Andre Villas-Boas last week.

The former England and Blackburn midfielder started off with a defeat to West Ham in the Capital One Cup, but four days later Tottenham beat Southampton 3-2.

The Londoners played some of their most attacking football of the season as they came from behind to win at St Mary's.

That performance, and Sherwood's commitment to playing attacking football, pleased chairman Daniel Levy, who had grown tired of watching Tottenham's slow build-up play and lack of penetration under Villas-Boas.

Levy believes Sherwood's confident approach will give the players the push they need to finish in the top four this season and the new man at the helm certainly has complete faith in the expensively-assembled squad at his disposal.

"We have good players here and if we apply ourselves well, get the players playing as they can and get the right players on the ball in the correct areas, then we can hurt any team we play against," said Sherwood, whose first game as full manager comes on Boxing Day against West Brom.

Some have questioned the wisdom of appointing Sherwood, but the man who brought him onto the coaching staff at White Hart Lane - Harry Redknapp - is sure Levy has done the right thing.

Redknapp employed Sherwood as a part-time coach in 2008 and Sherwood then went on to take charge of the development side along with Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey, who have moved up to the first-team with the new boss.

Redknapp took Spurs into the Champions League in 2010 and the QPR manager thinks Sherwood can achieve the same feat this year.

Redknapp even thinks that Tottenham can catch second-place Arsenal, who have spent much of the season at the top of the Barclays Premier League.

"I thought Tottenham were absolute certainties to finish above Arsenal at the start of the season," Redknapp told talkSPORT.

"Then Arsenal lost their first game of the season, but they have done fantastic since then. But they are only six points above Tottenham.

"That's nothing. That can be wiped out in a week, so Tottenham are still bang in there.

"They have a good squad. I think Tim will get the best out of them. I wouldn't write Tottenham off for a top-four position, they have got as good a chance as the seven teams that will be scrapping it out until the end of the season."

Sherwood says he will assess Mousa Dembele's ankle over Christmas before deciding whether the midfielder should play against West Brom.

Sherwood hopes his team can take advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the Midlands club, who sacked Steve Clarke on December 14.

Sherwood said: "They've had some great results this season, they have an interim manager at the moment and hopefully that uncertainty can help put us on the right track and we can capitalise on that."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in