Sacked Boas, Simple Sherwood

So the recent shake up of AVB loosing his job and Tim Sherwood retaining a full time position at the helm has now had time to settle. With a good few games to trial the inexperienced Sherwood we can now start to look at what his era can offer us moving forward, in AVB we had strict tactician, a man dubbed as the next Mourniniho, a young manager who had some very early success at Porto thus giving him a huge self value and for this reason the booming brand of the premier league was always going to be his destination.

AVB’s time at Chelsea was short and his stock was devalued, Levy saw this as an opportunity to pick up a young manager who had the world at his feet but had slightly been de-railed and for this no doubt he would get him at a better price than he would of a year prior. I think most spurs fans were sad to see Harry pay the price of his job for this move after his great service, but were also a little excited about this master plan, the fact AVB got the chop at chelsea didn’t worry the fans too much as he dropped ego’s and paid the price and after all not many managers survive long at Chelsea. The fans could all grasp Levy’s long term thinking new young manager, a long term fixture, a new stadium (eventually), and investment into our evolving squad, we were poised to watch this era and excited to see what it would bring.

We all know the rest about AVB’s term, but i would like to focus on the reason for his demise, and really it boiled down to the fact that the start of this season 2013/14 Spurs just did not look like…… our Spurs we know and love. I’ve always been a keen advocate that managers need time even when there backs are against the wall everyone deserves a decent go at revival, however the fans were becoming impatient at some of the obvious changes that needed to be made and eventually in this results business that is football AVB’s time was up after the drumming at home to Liverpool.

And so Tim Sherwood was given his chance, i believe Levy was baffled at why AVB didn’t go to plan and the last thing he needed was to bring in another high profile manager halfway through a season for it all to go wrong, why not give a ex-player who new the club a chance to steady the ship. AVB was such a strict tactician he treated the game like an equation and with his correct formula it would breed success, this would often work, after all although we were not playing well and looked very bland we were still getting wins and points, however when AVB’s formula wouldn’t work he was to strict ( or some might say stubborn) to change his ways, there was never a plan B.

Tim Sherwood instantly relived this tension, he didn’t come into the role with any powerpoint presentations on how to master the game, he wasn’t here to re-invent the wheel, he simply made a change that we could all see needed to be made and he stuck two up top! A masterstroke that Mike Basset would be proud of, ‘today we will play four four F’in two’.

Sherwood knew our beloved club and he knew the talent he was blessed with in the squad, he abolished the complication of a continently style of football and took it back to its roots, with two strikers we could instantly solve our lack lustre previous attacking form, and for this Sherwood ‘i salute you’. You can imagine Sherwood’s team talks to be pretty easy, he has a squad of internationals and proven players from different leagues and teams, they are all individually great, i can imagine it goes something along the lines of ‘you are all quality players, you know your ability, get out there and show the rest of us’. It has become to fashionable to play one up front pack the midfield with ball players, score perfect team goals, I’m not suggesting it doesn’t work, but for Spurs it was too much too soon.

Im summary, Sherwood has offered us a life-raft by letting the players play he has brought a Adebayor back into the team who looks like a whole new player and he has got us scoring again, for now that is enough. Perhaps there will come a time when we need to re-evaluate on the situation and our direction, be it in 10 games or at the end of the season, but what is important is to settle down and close the gap on the leaders, so far so good. I’m sure i speak for most Spurs fans when i say that I’m glad to see us playing again with a bit of freedom, its like the shackles have been released, i believe AVB will go on to have a great career i just think Tottenham was not his club, possibly to that extent the Premiere league is not suited to his style.