There are a number of jobs in the football world that many would consider a poisoned chalice.
The best of the best only ever manage a couple of years at Real Madrid for example. At the other end of the scale you have say, the Leeds United job. Chairman Massimo Cellino’s secretary is no doubt growing increasingly tired of printing out P45’s. Somewhere between (not geographically!) those very different football club’s you might find Midlands based club Aston Villa.
Tim Sherwood became the latest Villans gaffer to get the sack on Sunday following his teams defeat at home to Swansea City. His points tally for the season so far meant the writing was on the wall as soon as that final whistle blew. Four points from ten games is almost enough to get you relegated twice, and amounted to Villa’s worst ever Premier League start. Hilarious.
This from a guy who was quoted as saying just five months ago:
I am allowed to sign whoever I want in the summer as long as I can justify it, but I believe even if we did not make a signing we would not be in this position (battling the drop) again. (Daily Mail)
What a complete and utter fool.
The man believed his own drivel, and he spoke plenty of it. That was his problem. Too much talking, too much ‘I am Tim Sherwood’ and not enough concentration on the fact that in order to make Villa a force to be reckoned with once again, it was going to take a lot more hard work than being handed down a decent squad to play with just as he had at Spurs.
Let us just have a little pick at a couple of these recent comments from Timothy courtesy of teamtalk.com;
The club decided that it was the best way to go forward, that’s the way we wanted to go, to acquire the young players.
Did they Tim? But only in May did you comment that you had the final say on which players would or wouldn’t sign.
A lot of these players need to settle into the country and into the Premier League.
Oh, like the four players you signed from France for more than £30million? Did you not recently say:
Ligue 1 is a market where I think the football resembles the Premier League so the transition should be easier for the guys. (SoccerWay)
The pattern continues. Tim Sherwood not only sent Villa backwards, he spent about £50million in transfer fees doing so. Unfortunately the former England midfielder can only blame himself for this shambles, but there is no way he will be doing that. At least the likes of Brendan Rodgers and Dick Advocaat left their respective jobs with a bit of integrity.
The failings of Sherwood for me the fact that he failed to sign the required amount of proven Premier League players. The Lions, over the last few years have signed too many young players, many from abroad, in the hope that they will make the step up. It is a lot of pressure to deal with, especially considering that Villa’s fans believe they should be up in the top half of the table, at least. That right must be earned, and there is no substitute for experience.
That is exactly what they need right now. Not just in terms of management but in the playing squad come January too, if that is not too late.
Whoever climbs on board for Aston Villa will surely have to think long and hard about taking over at this club that currently look like they are destined for their first ever season in the Championship come next August.
Their next three crucial Premier League fixtures are Spurs (a), Man City (h) and Everton (a). I wish them luck, or maybe not …
Now I’ve got that off my chest, let us take a look at the results in the Premier League at the weekend along with a few statistics.
Leicester City 1 Palace 0 – South London’s finest are now the only club yet to draw a game in the Premier League this season following this defeat in the East Midlands.
Norwich 0 West Bromwich Albion 1 – No team has more clean sheets than the Baggies following this second 1-0 win in a row.
Stoke City 0 Watford 2 – Birmingham born Troy Deeney finally netted his first top flight goal in this encounter.
West Ham 2 Chelsea 1 – On 20 points after ten games this is the Hammers best start to a Premier League campaign. On the flip side, defeat for Chelsea at Upton Park means it is Chelsea’s worst ever start to a Premier League season on 11 points from ten matches.
Arsenal 2 Everton 1 – Arsenal have scored 1.8 goals per game so far this term, that is well above the league average of 1.38 goals per game.
Villa 1 Swansea City 2 – The Villans have now lost all of their last four meeting with the Welsh club.
Sunderland 3 Newcastle 0 – The madness of the Wear-Tyne derby continues. Sunderland have won the last six in a row to the delight of their fans.
Bournemouth 1 Tottenham 5 – The south coast side have conceded an average of 2.2 goals per game so far this season following this hammering at the hands of a Harry Kane led Spurs.
Man Utd 0 Man City 0 – After all the hype, the weekends apparent big game turned out to be, well, rubbish. Only the third goalless draw between these two teams in the Premier League.
Liverpool 1 Southampton 1 – Jurgen Klopp is unbeaten in his three games as Liverpool manager. Unfortunately for the Reds all three of those have ended in draws.
