Well I have taken the last 24 hours to gather my thoughts on how the Club has dealt with this latest situation re appointing a new manager.
From a personal viewpoint I would have looked at travelling down maybe one of 3 routes:
A) If it had at all been possible for both Levy & Sherwood to swallow their pride, then I think the best short term fix was always going to be someone like Hoddle. He has a great football brain & I think has learnt from his previous stints as a manager at both Chelsea & WHL.
He both understands the Club history & also the type of football the fans want. All that it needed was for Levy & Sherwood to forget what has gone on in the past & put the club first.
By following this route the Club could then take its time in looking for a more long term manager such as Klinsmann, Van Gall, De Boer etc. These managers are more likely to be interested after the WC is over.
B) The club could have put SS in charge until the end of the season, however as he had already stated that is not what he wanted then that was unlikely to happen.
Instead the Club has gone for option C) Appointing TS on a permanent basis.
Now I think in picking the latter option Levy has been both clever & cunning.
Clever in that it keeps key members of the club happy and also gives us some continuity going forward. Bringing in someone totally new now would not have been a great plan.
However by giving Sherwood only an 18 month contract Levy has shown his cunning side. If TS delivers a trophy or top 4 slot this season, Levy will get credit for appointing TS, if TS falls short of expectations and Levy does decide to go for a big name like Van Gaal etc, then he only has to pay out around £500k in compensation if he gets rid of Sherwood.
Whilst I am not wholly in favour of such an inexperienced manager taking over, Sherwood does have some good qualities he can bring to the club. He has won the PL with Blackburn, he also was captain & had high profile characters like Shearer, Batty & Le Saux to contend with & managed it very well.
He also appears to be his own man & has a strong personality. I also like his willingness to look at the youngsters which AVB seemed to distance himself from.
As long as he can keep us reasonably tight at the back & brings back the attacking play then I will be happy! COYS
New Manager
posted on 24/12/13
Superior Sherwood?
posted on 24/12/13
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 24/12/13
No offence, but all of this "he knows the club, the style of play the fans want etc" stuff all sounds nice and wonderful, but hoddle hasn't managed anyone in nearly 8 years. Have there been no offer suitable for him in that time? Has he still got it? Going for the "one of us" managerial options such as hoddle could have gone one of two ways:
- guardiola at barca or Kenny's return at Liverpool.
Not saying I'm all for Sherwood but pretty much all the other stop-gaps aren't available.
posted on 24/12/13
Why has no one else employed Hoddle on the last five years? I have to give the man credit. He has managed to beg for the job so much that a few people believe he is the answer. Great player not so good as a manager.
I remember when he brought Bunjevic(Spelling? Who cares?)and Acimovic during his time as manager last time round. In one Monday night football match he brought Acimovic on as a sub only to sub him before the game finished lol Football brain!! He had his chance and blew it. Never go back...Hopefully the chelsea will learn that soon.
posted on 24/12/13
Oooooooooooooooooooops!! TS not SS!
posted on 25/12/13
Well my opinions are somewhat stronger.
Out of all the apointments Levy has made I consider this to be absolutely ludicrous at best.
Its not bad IMO its catostrophic and I am even more angry now than I was when AVB was appointed.
Furious does not even begin to say how strongly I feel.
posted on 26/12/13
grandspurs.......................................I am only trying to be diplomatic, it is definitely a risk rich appointment. I still think my reasoning is correct, if Sherwood bombs then Levy can pull the plug & go for a more prominent figure. He cannot then be accused of ignoring young British talent!
posted on 29/12/13
GG
I think its the equivalent of putting a learner driver in a damned Ferrari personally and I am not impressed one little bit.
I have always defended Levy but his managerial appointments are simply stupid there is no other word for it
posted on 29/12/13
Grandspurs, I can empathise with you, I have said all along we need someone with PL experience in charge.
Levy had a reasonably good opportunity in that he could have appointed Hoddle or someone similar until the end of the season, and in the meantime searched for suitable candidates.
It is as we know difficult signing the right players in January, the same can be said of finding a suitable replacement for AVB, all the good ones are tied up until at least the end of the season.
posted on 29/12/13
Sherwood for fronting up to Levy.
I suspect that he played his hand knowing a job at Swindon was a fall-back option (though any Levy wrath could make the loan-outs "interesting" ) .
But he is effectively in the same position as di Matteo was at Chelsky.
So barring getting Spurs a CL slot, what do you all think is the minimum silverware or highest PL position come May that will prevent a Levy clause being triggered to get rid of Sherwood in the summer ??