Time up for Tim

Since he swooped into the into the managers role and positioned himself on Daniel Levy’s much used trapdoor, I have stayed out of the Tim Sherwood debate. I lost the strength to fight for or against him after the spell of AVB was broken. I didn’t have enough faith left in the tank to back him, and not enough bitterness to call him bad words. He was our manager, I accepted it.

It may not be the greatest stance to take, but what else could I do. Tweet funny pictures of Tim? Stop going to the stadium? Boo? When it comes down to the bare facts, Sherwood is the manager of Spurs, the club is bigger than Blanchflower, Bale or Benny, therefore it’s bigger and more important that the man in charge. I wasn’t renouncing Spurs or wasting my time protesting against something I fundamentally love.

I may have closed my eyes and accepted everything thrown at me but I didn’t and I decided to support blindly, I decided to bide my time and wait.

During this hiatus of forming an opinion, I did however, allow myself time to enjoy the delightful capitulation of Man United as they transformed from all-conquering conquerors to weekly conquests. It is their season horribillis however that has brought home the importance of a manager. It’s David Moyes drowning in front of a global audience that has forced me to consider the suitability of Sherwood.

A manager is worth 10 points a season, a good manager a 20 an unbelievable one such as Sir Alex, the title. Where does Sherwood fail within these categories?

With a crunch game against the Chelsea looming, how will our manager line up his charges, how will he approach the game?

Generally in a tight game where the result is determined through tactical skill he has been beaten. Arsene Wenger, Chris Houghton and Steve Bruce have left him f-bombing from the touch line, unable to do change anything. As the clock ticked down at the KC Stadium with the score at 1-1 he never made one move towards the subs bench, never attempted anything new, Spurs stuttered and Spurs lost ground on the top four.

Of course our disaster of a season, as some seem to refer to it, can not be pinned completely on Tim’s tactics. There are men who sit and watch from cushioned chairs in lofty vantage points at the Lane who I blame more.

[linequote]Generally in a tight game where the result is determined through tactical skill he has been beaten.[/linequote]The “project” that we were promised when AVB arrived was abandoned at some point last summer and dropping our tools we rushed out to IKEA, grabbed a load quick fix flat packs, shredding the instructions in our shopping frenzy. AVB’s fate was sealed as he attempted to put it all together. Stressed, paranoid, biting at his own staff, it was always going to end in a sacking or a breakdown.

AVB remains a potentially great manager and a nice man with bright ideas but two jobs running he has been removed, for his own peace of mind, he needs to pick his next job wisely. In his stead Sherwood was parachuted and I think that this was the right appointment. At that point we needed a glue gun wielding “football” man who would swoop in, say the right things, get us back to basics and stabilise a club that had been just been thrashed by its rivals home and away.

Sherwood steadied us, brought us goals and a win at Old Trafford, but as the games wore on, his stabilising suddenly became weakness. We started to be too predictable. After a great run of results we arrived at the Emirates and were swatted away. Since then he has tried to smarten up, but it’s gone, that new boy shine has worn off, even reverting back to 442, although still collecting points, isn’t collecting plaudits. Sherwood wont be here next season, and in all honesty he doesn’t deserve to be. The final nail was Norwich, the confirmation Dnipro and Cardiff at home.

They were games that needed some nous, the team needed some direction. All too often he relies on the players figuring it out. Against Norwich and Dnipro two teams content to sit deep, we needed some imagination, or at least as we had seen in AVB’s tenure a semblance of a plan. Instead against Norwich especially we crumbled, and against Dnipro the victory was the result of a Ukrainian self-destruct and Spurs players waking up, more than anything Sherwood had orchestrated.

The honeymoon, if there was one, is over and the problem for Sherwood is that he was never the virginal blushing bride dressed all in white. He arrived at the altar stained red, his association with Arsenal, his wide boy persona and the role many believe he had in AVB’s sacking tainting him. Sherwood had a mountain to climb before he started and only a unbelievable run of form could have saved him, the decent but not spectacular run he is currently on isn’t enough.

[linequote]Sherwood steadied us, brought us goals and a win at Old Trafford, but as the games wore on, his stabilising suddenly became weakness.[/linequote]Whatever happens on Saturday evening against Chelsea wont be Sherwood’s fault. The folly of this summers transfer frenzy means we head to Stamford Bridge with Zeki Fryers and Kyle Naughton in our back four, the problem is Sherwood has no means to counter these issues. He has no trick, no tweak, no dossier of how to extract himself. AVB would have played Jan Vertongehn at left back, Sherwood ‘man of the people’ wont.

May be one day in the future Sherwood will transform into a decent manager. He certainly has the desire, but it wont be this season and it’s unlikely to be at Spurs. Should we appoint an experienced manager it would be beneficial for Sherwood to remain and learn under him, but I think his ego will not allow this. Sherwood wont move back upstairs but instead will strike out on his own. His six months at Spurs will see him collect a lower Premier League job, or higher Championship seat.

Time is up for Tim, he has given it a good go, but he has been found to be lacking. I still wont direct my energy into hating him, but I have accepted that he isn’t the next Pep, Jurgen Klopp or even Steve Bruce.

Tim’s not good enough, but it’s not just him. The players, the board, the scouting and director of football haven’t been good enough this season. Next season we need to be smarter everywhere, not just the dugout.