What did Sandro hope to achieve with his ‘I’m not injured’ tweet on Saturday morning? Was it born of anarchy? Mischievousness? A mistaken belief that just because he’d gotten over his latest mishap he was automatically going to make the side? Or maybe he thought that his ‘hope we win today’ would be enough to get his message displayed as part of the recently introduced and totally cringeworthy ‘Spurs tweets’ feature that is run on the Jumbotron during games.
Surely he cannot have thought that it was going to put enough pressure on Sherwood that Tim would change his plans and include him in the squad – he would’ve known by the time he pressed send that there would be no need for him to change out of his karate pyjamas on Saturday. Surely too he would’ve known that his manager is not the tweeting kind. Something that got the Spurs section of the twittersphere all excited pre kick-off was unknown and unacknowledged by the vast majority of those in WHL for the game, probably including the manager, and would’ve remained so had it not been for a question from a BBC reporter and Sherwood’s typical engage mouth before brain response. It’s no doubt exactly what the reporter was hoping for; I hope he sent Sandro a private message later to thank him, on Twitter of course.
So if he didn’t expect to force his way on to the bench by this action, what was the point? He’s a popular man and was perhaps hoping that his army of Twitter followers would arise in the virtual world and demand that he be given a run out. Perhaps there’s a Second Life scenario somewhere where he patrolled in front of the back four against Fulham to the sound of keyboards in the crowd tapping out likes and thumbs up. It’s possible that he just wanted to send his best wishes to the team and something got lost in translation and it’s possible that he’s angling for a move and so wanted to cause a bit of trouble but all he has done is publicise what he already knew, and I’m surprised that he’d want the rest of the world to know, that Sherwood doesn’t currently believe that what he brings to the side is different or good enough to earn him a place.
And playing the Devil’s Advocate, is he right? We all love Sandro’s enthusiasm and attitude on the field but is it a surprise that Sherwood has decided to, for the moment anyway, see if the more technically gifted and disciplined pairing of Chadli and Paulinho can’t do a better job than a man who barely contributes from an attacking point of view and is just as liable to get himself a silly booking or go down mysteriously injured as he is finish ninety minutes.
This was a big season for Sandro. Not only is he trying to get into Brazil’s world cup squad he also needs to prove that he is reliable and committed to the team that pays his wages. He’s definitely not been reliable and if it turns out that his tweet was an attempt to undermine his manager (even if it’s only for the next three games) one would have to question his commitment as well.
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