It's not Sherwood!

[paul_e]

As I said on the replacement thread it looks like he's the only person we've spoken to at any length which makes me very nervous.  I'll give him a chance but I think we've made ourselves look a bit stupid by just jumping in with the first guy who looked our way after Lambert went.  They seem to have panicked a bit aout not getting someone in straight away.

[Mister E]

I'll repeat what I said earlier :
I'm slightly reassured that Fox has been courting him for several weeks (which maybe explains why Sherwood didn't accept at least one of the other vacancies), and I suppose he has had enough time assess Sherwood.
We don't know what Fox's recruitment skills are like and I think we have to cut him some slack.

It's all about the coaching staff that comes in.

[Mister E]

Disaster.

Let me be the first - Sherwood Out - it won't be too long mercifully

Get a grip

I think my grip is fine. This is a joke of an appointment but hardly surprising given track record. I think we just took another huge step towards the precipice instead using this opportunity to appoint anyone with a semblance of experience and success. Time will tell but i fear the very worst

who would you have appointed?

[curiousorange]

I'm all for younger managers being given a crack at big jobs - you may end up being surprised. But try as I might, I just can't imagine getting that new manager bounce with Tim Sherwood. He seems the kind of man who puts himself up front during team training sessions. All I see is bluster and bullshit.

I'm always behind the team. I don't have to like the manager.

[Exeter 77]

I really didn't like Sherwood as a player (probably something to do with him scoring one of the goals which stopped us taking the championship challenge to the final game in 1990) but he captained a league winning side at Blackburn so he hopefully he knows a bit about what is required. The 'but' comes from his inexperience in management particularly at the wrong end of the table as well as his apparent arrogance and blaming of everyone else - although supreme self-confidence à la Mourinho may not be a bad thing. Surely though he has to be given a chance as he's been appointed whether we like it or not.

[tomd2103]

Massively underwhelmed by the appointment and staggered by the length of the contract.  Yet again the judgement of those running the club has got to be called into question. 

All that said, there's no choice but to get behind him now.  Wouldn't be surprised if another appointment on the football side is made soon.

Why are you bothered about the contract. Its only just over 2 years. Why would he join on a short term appointment?

There will be clauses about getting rid of him if we are relegated with little compensation

How can you possibly know about what clauses are in his contract?  As someone else has pointed out its over 3 years, which a fair amount of time left if he takes us down and starts badly in the Championship next season.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Without any hindsight, McLeish was a much, much worse appointment.

At the time we were in a much better position, higher-placed, better playing squad, better financially, and whoever was appointed would have a pre-season to organise things.  We could have done a lot better than McLeish, a manager who had just gotten his team relegated, and was the manager of our local "rivals".

Now, we're in dire straits, the very best candidates are either tied to other clubs, or wouldn't want to join us now.

Sherwood might not be an exciting choice, and to an extent he's an unknown quantity; but there really aren't a lot of other options.  I don't care if he's an unpleasant man (and I don't know that he is), I only care that he does his best for the Villa.

[PhilVill]

I think he's ok too. I'm fairly happy, he seems the sort who doesn't take any shit.

[Ads]

Experience is an important factor. Atkinson, O'Neill and Houllier had lots of it and knew what it was like to manage a club as big as Aston Villa before they took over. It didn't stop it ending in tears for all three.

Taylor, Little and Gregory had no experience of a club as large as us and in two of them, barely any top flight experience. Were those three markedly less successful than the other three? It cuts both ways,. It's important that Sherwood gets men in his staff that know the game and know how to implement his ideas. His sheer bloody mindedness is something we could probably use right now.

[Toronto Villa]

As disappointed as I am, I am going to approach this with an open mind and give him my support. We needed change and every option was better than Lambert. Bring in a good coaching staff and prove us wrong Tim. Be a success at Villa and the fans will quickly get behind you.

[Yossarian]

I would have preferred someone else but I don't think someone else was available or someone else did not want to take on quite the difficult challenge of keeping us up this year.

[gpbarr]

Disaster.

Let me be the first - Sherwood Out - it won't be too long mercifully

Get a grip

I think my grip is fine. This is a joke of an appointment but hardly surprising given track record. I think we just took another huge step towards the precipice instead using this opportunity to appoint anyone with a semblance of experience and success. Time will tell but i fear the very worst

who would you have appointed?

I'm not paid millions to answer that question. But given the PL is the most attractive in the world for any manager to be in, he who is ought explain quite how Tim Shereood is the right man

[supertom]

Excellent article and one for the statto's. Bottom line in his short spell at Spurs, more points on average than AVB, but happened to play a more expansive game. Scored more goals on average, but conceded more. He'll open things up, and we do have a decent defence. I guess we can only see what will happen.

StatsBomb

We're crying out for a more expansive game and have been since Lambert came in. Seeing our wider players attacking fullbacks rather than crowding each other in the middle was so frustrating. And indeed if it means we don't put the onus on width entirely on our fullbacks, that's a good thing. I would hope Benteke will thrive. Gabby's also fairly good in the air with the right delivery too. We have Gil, Grealish, Zogbia, Sinclair and indeed Gabby, who all have the ability to get at full-backs. There are probably about a dozen fully's at most in this league who can actually defend. We've not exploited that for years.

Perhaps Sherwood might actually deliver on what Lambert always promised. A bit of entertainment. A slightly gung-ho mentality, which he had at Norwich but didn't bring. I always expected 3-2 wins and 3-2 defeats in roughly equal measure. Those kind of results and a solid mid-table finish with Lambo. We didn't get that. Only for 5 months did we ever look a side with goals in us.

Here's hoping for some entertainment anyway. Spurs were quite good to watch under him. The subtlety of a hammer to the skull, but it did work. Of course they had the quality, but we've got more than enough attacking quality here. It should be our biggest strength. Our attack minded players are better than our defenders in my opinion.

[Monty]

It's likely I'd be underwhelmed by almost any appointment we could make, if I'm honest. However, I really think this is an extremely poor decision. We could well stay up still, the squad of players is good and often any change is refreshing enough to galvanise a team. In addition, Sherwood is certainly an ebullient character, and often down at the bottom what you need is a wave of emotion to carry you through.

However, unless Sherwood has changed drastically in the last few months, I think the long-term will be extremely disappointing. The guy is very arrogant, and seemingly incapable of acknowledging that he's made any mistakes, preferring to blame the players 'lack of character' if he's made a catastrophic tactical fuck-up - and he makes plenty of those, as he's also, in the words of one Spurs fan, 'proudly and aggressively ignorant of the basics of football tactics'.

Why do we keep appointing this kind of manager? Why always the thoughtless passion-mongers? Why do we see smaller clubs around us go for forward-thinking, tactically aware managers, often from abroad, and continue to appoint old-school British guys who don't even have a clue that they don't have a clue? It's really wearying.

[mikeb1982]

Well, I did say anyone but Lambert, so I suppose I should be happy...

Everyone thought on Tuesday we were relegation certs, and it was entirely down to Lambert and his dour tactics and demeanour.  Tim Sherwood is at least far from dour, and should be able to motivate a mid table standard squad.  What's the worst that can happen?  What we've all thought was inevitable anyway and go down? Therefore, welcome to the Villa, keep us up and you're an instant hero, win the cup and you're a bona fide legend.  Over to you you mouthy cockney...