It's not Sherwood!

[curiousorange]

Regardless of what happens in the summer, he's earned the right to a Premier League job. We're a bloody good team - if that's despite our players or because of them, it's Sherwood and his management team that have made this happen.

[fbriai]

He ay doing bad for a chancer.

This is one of my favourite ever posts. An amazing day like today is always tinged with a feeling of being far away from it all. This post is everything that's good about back home. Really made me smile.

Think Sherwood has done a superb job. I'd have thought you were off your head if you'd have told me all that would have passed following the Hull game.

So much of football is confidence and the side is now brimming with it. That's down to him.

[Toronto Villa]

He's honestly done as good a job as any of us could have hoped. He's taken a club at the PL level literally on its knees post Hull and done absolute wonders with no money, added good coaches and a mountain of energy, belief and confidence. And that's not to deny the ability he is showing also in being a manager at this level. Long may it continue.

[paul_e]

The key thing for m is that he's tapped into the potential that some people saw was there but Lambert just couldn't bring out.  I've been consistent in saying that I think we have a top half squad and now most of them are showing that it wasn't misplaced faith.

[Des Little]

Regardless of who buys us they've got to keep Sherwood in charge. He's doing far better than anyone realistically imagined and he's got us all behind him.

[Dave Cooper please]

We were never a bad team, look at the players we have for fucks sake, Lambert sucked the soul out of us, Sherwood has applied the defibrillators.
Is he good enough to be our long term manager? Who knows, but he certainly deserves the chance.

[supertom]

The key thing for m is that he's tapped into the potential that some people saw was there but Lambert just couldn't bring out.  I've been consistent in saying that I think we have a top half squad and now most of them are showing that it wasn't misplaced faith.

Even carrying so many injuries we've beaten Spurs and Liverpool comfortably in a week. Two teams who seem a league apart in the last few years. How far from our potential we've been under Lambert was ridiculous, because clearly he had an eye for a bargain too.
He seemed to be grinding Benteke into mediocrity this season. Gabby looked like he was ready for the glue factory. A bit of fight, belief and energy from Sherwood, and in actually more nous than Lambert probably ever managed, and we're looking on the up finally.
We're not actually that far off what's required to be that top 8. It may be at the bottom of the top 8, from 6th down, but we could be back to where we ordinarily should be. A few astute signings and keeping hold of our better players and we'll be in good nick next season.
We're so much bloody better than scrapping with the bottom feeders and crawling to 15th every year.

[pauliewalnuts]

We were never a bad team, look at the players we have for fucks sake, Lambert sucked the soul out of us, Sherwood has applied the defibrillators.

I said that earlier. Or similar.

for most of these season we were fucking awful, but - counter intuitive though it sounds - there wasn't actually that much wrong. The problems were easily identifiable. It wasn't that we couldn't defend for shit or that we had no spine, they weren't massive, structural problems.

Lambert's problem was that he couldn't fix them - if he could identify them in the first place.

That's what made the end of his reign so truly depressing to watch.

Sherwood, and who knows what he'll be like in the long run, has come in and put one or two things right, plus brought in a certain bounce and arrogance about the place, and things have improved massively.

We are still not safe from relegation, and we have still lost a fair few games under Sherwood, there is still loads to do, but if you'd told me a couple of months ago we'd go to a Wembley semi final, play Liverpool, absolutely control the game from start to finish - and make no mistake, we ran that game today, we were that good - and our fans would have been as happy as we've seen today, I'd have thought you were fucking nuts.

Look back not too long ago and we'd scored 11 goals all season, not won for x months, rewritten the record books for shitness, all that bad stuff, then look at today.

It is a massive change, but at the same time, it is a relatively small one. It was just that, previously, the manager couldn't sort it out.

I don't wish Lambert any ill, and hope he gets a chance to resurrect his career, he always seemed a decent enough, genuine bloke, but you have to say, recent events don't reflect very well on the way he was running the club this season.

[atomicjam]

We were never a bad team, look at the players we have for fucks sake, Lambert sucked the soul out of us, Sherwood has applied the defibrillators.
Is he good enough to be our long term manager? Who knows, but he certainly deserves the chance.

Yep, totally agree.

[richl]

He's making it fun again! And I really didn't like him as a player or want him as manager.

[ciggiesnbeer]

I think what is amazing is in our past couple of games we have not nicked a win or absorbed a ton of pressure to attack on the break we have gone toe to toe with quality opposition. In todays game we were clearly and without any doubts the better team in a game which could have overawed many teams. It is gobsmacking really and I credit Sherwood. I mean, what else has changed? Just the manager. I remain grateful for Lamberts recruitment of some very good players but Sherwood has us playing with a swagger I have not seen for years.

[Toronto Villa]

At some point we have stop worrying what Sherwood will be like in the long run. Not many managers last much more than 3-4 years now anyway. All that matters is that he has completely transformed the here and now.

[Matt C]

Not often I agree with the ToryGraph but...

"What was considered a gamble by Villa on Feb 14 looks inspired now."

[pbavfckuwait]

He has managed to breathe life into a squad that had lost believe in itself big time, he has given players freedom, but also they know with that comes responsibility and as a collective they stand together and accept that responsibility. Tactically he is alot better than what he is given credit for and he also has a team he is working with that he trusts, something that was obviously missing with the last manager.
Thank you Mr. Sherwood for making us believe as well, that had nearly been sucked out of us.

[Dave]

At some point we have stop worrying what Sherwood will be like in the long run. Not many managers last much more than 3-4 years now anyway. All that matters is that he has completely transformed the here and now.

Quite. My main concern was what he would be like long-term. But with each passing day and the wheels staying on, the long-term matters less and less. Nearly every manager's tenure ends in anger and disappointment eventually, so it will happen - just as it would eventually happen with any manager we had hired. But it might as well be fun while we wait for it.

And if we win on May 30th then he can have a free pass for the rest of his time with the club as far as I'm concerned.