It's not Sherwood!

[brian green]

I think Dave's description of Sherwood as "slightly dopey" encapsulates his failings perfectly.  He is like the kid who, given a box of Lego which makes a horse throws the horse picture away and clumps together his own scary monster. He just cannot make the connection between the picture on the box and the pieces it contains.

"He" has brought in some cracking players but does not have the vision, brain or imagination to form them into a team.

I agree with everything that has been said about his plunge in popularity being due to his predecessors being given far too much time and patience but Sherwood is personally falling short of expectations.   Usually the cocky, brash, self confident Thames estuary man has ability under the shell of self promotion.  Even Arthur Daley, Derek Trotter and Boris Johnson have the cat like ability always to land on their feet.  Sherwood seems to be the exception to the rule and lands on his head.  Scratch the surface of Tim Sherwood and underneath there is only the scary monster maker.

[spangley1812]

From the BBC Football Gossip page

Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood wants a greater say in transfers after head of recruitment Paddy Reilly and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt recommended deals in the summer. (Daily Mirror)

[brian green]

That is a perfect example (if true and not a recycling of the Daily Heil shot in the dark) of his dopeyness.  The fault is not in the signings, it is the way he has used the players at his disposal that has created the problem.  How to lose the dressing room at a stroke. Tell the players you really wanted somebody else..

[Ormy Droid]

Just when you thought he couldn't get any dumber, Timmy! uses the international to brief his mates in the London media that the signings we made over the summer are nothing to do with him. Which isn't going to prove particularly helpful in getting any of them to 'bust a gut' for him is it?

But when Tim Sherwood finds himself backed into a corner...Tim Sherwood comes out passing the buck, obviously. Whether this is a last desperate attempt to shift the blame onto others for our disastrous start to the campaign, and hold on to his job...Or, an attempt to protect 'his reputation' before he gets sacked, in the hope that some other bunch of idiots might give him a job, we shall see...

[brian green]

Or to provoke Fox into sacking him so he can ride off to Sky with his saddlebags stuffed with Randy's money.

[Ian.]

I firmly believe he had no say in the summer signings other than to interview them once we approached them. Like Brian says if what we're hearing is true that dressing room will be completely lost.

Surely this Paddy and Hendrick can advise Fox on the way forward to selecting a new manager?

[Dante Lavelli]

Or to provoke Fox into sacking him so he can ride off to Sky with his saddlebags stuffed with Randy's money.

When he was appointed most said that there was zero chance of him doing a Lambert and slowly, maybe stoically letting his Villa career die.  I think you're right that this is the first tremor of what will be a pretty huge explosion.  What are the odds on him throwing away the script and lambasting the players after a chelsea defeat in an attempt to protect his reputation?

[Ormy Droid]

Maybe I'm just stupid, but you would think after our recent experience of getting shot of managers (or even them getting shot of us - MON) and having to fork out a massive pay-off, we'd have learned by now, wouldn't we?

Apart from six months at Tottenham, Sherwood was a novice, so really shouldn't be on massive wages in the first place, and his four year deal would hopefully have clauses inserted where we wouldn't have to pay up his entire contract should he get sacked, say because we happen to be in the bottom three, and only going one way. As I said, maybe I'm just stupid.

[brian green]

I think you are right. The toys won't be in the pram much longer. When teddy and sooty get airborne, probably after the Chelsea game, we shall see what Fox is made of.

[brian green]

Crossed posts. I did not mean to say you are right you are stupid Ormy. Quite the reverse. You are right we ought to have learned from our string of mistakes.

[Ormy Droid]

Crossed posts. I did not mean to say you are right you are stupid Ormy. Quite the reverse. You are right we ought to have learned from our string of mistakes.

Oops! The 'maybe I'm stupid' line was aimed more at the incompetence of the people running our football club Brian, not you!

[Dante Lavelli]

Crossed posts. I did not mean to say you are right you are stupid Ormy. Quite the reverse. You are right we ought to have learned from our string of mistakes.

Oops! The 'maybe I'm stupid' line was aimed more at the incompetence of the people running our football club Brian, not you!

Right now the club has a DoF by everything other than name in Almstadt, a scouting structure headed up by Reilly and even a data analyst.  In many ways in the last 6-months the club has put in place an enviable infrastructure.  Assuming these guys know what they're doing, then the incompetence should decline, however I think it is probably too soon to tell right now.

One thing I will say, IF we are going towards the sabermetrics/scouting route then it must be a nightmare having a manager who constantly chops and changes his formations. 

The next selection of manager will hopefully be someone who has a clearer, identifiable, footballing philosophy so that the back-room team have something to work with when identifying players.

[Ian.]

You can just imagine the interviews with Fox and Sherwood, how it was explained how he would be working with a DOF and Chief Scout. Tim must have thought he won the lottery with Fox chasing him, he would have agreed to anything to land this job.

[curlytailavfc]

its nice to have a weekend off from watching us loose

[aj2k77]

I thought Tim nice but dim said over summer that he has a contact who knows exactly what kind of player he wants in every position and goes scouting for him at the first sound of a phone call? If all he wanted was Spurs twats like Lennon, Townsend and Adebayor why would they need scouting?

I'm confused again. Villa managers confuse me.