This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/13/tim-sherwood-sacked-tottenham-hotspur-manager-mauricio-pochettino

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Tim Sherwood sacked as Tottenham Hotspur manager Tim Sherwood sacked as Tottenham Hotspur manager
(about 4 hours later)
Tim Sherwood has been sacked as Tottenham Hotspur manager less than five months after taking charge. Mauricio Pochettino would consider an approach from Tottenham Hotspur to become their manager after the sacking of Tim Sherwood on Tuesday, but Southampton have opened talks with the Argentinian aimed at persuading him to stay at St Mary's.
Daniel Levy, the club's chairman, met Sherwood on Tuesday and told him his contract was being terminated despite Spurs' sixth-placed finish. Southampton's Mauricio Pochettino is Tottenham's No1 target to replace him. The Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy, is taking stock after parting company with the ninth manager of his 13-year tenure at White Hart Lane. But Pochettino has emerged as his favoured candidate and the former Espanyol coach would be receptive to discussing the possibility of a move with Levy.
The news, though widely expected, left Sherwood devastated. "It is obviously a massive wrench to leave a club of the stature of Tottenham Hotspur, a club very close to my heart," he told Sky Sports News. Pochettino's squad at Southampton stands to enter next season minus two key players, with Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana having informed the club of their wish to consider offers from Manchester United and Liverpool respectively. The pair, who have been named by Roy Hodgson in the England squad for the World Cup finals, are under contract until 2018. They have not asked for transfers but their moves can be viewed as the opening steps in what tend to become protracted affairs.
Sherwood was given an 18-month deal when he succeeded André Villas-Boas last December but he has had to contend with regular questions about whether he will stay the duration, as the club have monitored Holland's Louis van Gaal, Pochettino and Frank de Boer of Ajax. United have offered £27m for Shaw and Liverpool's bid for Lallana is £20m. Southampton do not want to sell either of the players who helped them to an eighth-place Premier League finish and, at the very least, they would be resistant to agreeing deals before the World Cup. Strong performances in Brazil could increase the players' values.
Van Gaal is now bound for Manchester United, while De Boer, having said that Tottenham had sounded out the Ajax director of football, Marc Overmars, about his availability, is open to meeting Levy. Pochettino, though, has emerged as the frontrunner for the White Hart Lane job. There is the feeling in Southampton that the sale of star players has to stop at some stage – the club have offloaded Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in recent years, among others. The chairman, Ralph Krueger, is on record as saying that despite the club's debts, there is no financial imperative to cash in on any player. Southampton owe £27m on outstanding transfer payments, £22m of which is due in the summer, while the cost of redeveloping their training ground has risen from £15m to £30m.
Pochettino is worried that Southampton will lose the midfielder Adam Lallana and the left-back Luke Shaw to Liverpool and Manchester United respectively and he has long maintained that he will assess his options in the summer, when his contract at the club will have one year to run. Pochettino has been told that he can have the final say on transfers, in and out of the club, but the situations of Shaw and Lallana will enter his thinking as he finds his own career at a crossroads. The 42-year-old says that Southampton have completed the five-year project aimed at establishing the club in the Premier League, which was initiated by the former chairman Nicola Cortese, who hired Pochettino as a relative unknown in January 2013.
A statement from Levy on Tottenham's website confirmed Sherwood's departure on Tuesday. Pochettini now wants to hear evidence of the club's ambition in his talks with Krueger and the director Les Reed; essentially whether the plans for the next three or four years are sufficiently stimulating. The Argentinian has one year to run on his Southampton contract.
"We appointed Tim mid-season as someone who knew both the players and the club," he said. Levy said in the statement released to confirm Sherwood's departure that the 18-month contract he agreed last December contained a break clause at the end of the season, which rather undermined the notion that the former midfielder was anything more than a five-month caretaker.
"We agreed an 18-month contract with a break clause at the end of the season and we have now exercised that option. Sherwood endured a succession of stories while in charge that he would be replaced in the summer, as Tottenham monitored the situations of the Holland manager Louis van Gaal, Frank de Boer of Ajax and Pochettino. The club have also taken discreet soundings about the availability of Napoli's Rafael Benítez.
"Since appointing Tim as assistant first team coach in 2008 and then as technical co-ordinator in 2010 and head of football development in 2012, we have been supportive of him during football management changes throughout that period. On behalf of the club, I should like to state our thanks for all his efforts during his years with us. We wish him great success in his managerial career. Van Gaal is close to an agreement with Manchester United and De Boer, who is in Indonesia with Ajax, has said that he would be open to a discussion with Levy. De Boer is under contract until 2017, which could make him more expensive to prise away.
"Moving forward, now the season is over, we shall embark on the process of finding a new head coach. We have a talented squad and exciting young players coming through. We need to build on this season, develop our potential and inspire the kind of performances that we associate with our great club." Sherwood lost most of the big games but his Premier League record still bore scrutiny as he collected 42 points from 22 matches. "It is obviously a massive wrench to leave a club of the stature of Tottenham Hotspur, a club that is very close to my heart," he said.
Sherwood has been installed as the bookies' favourite for the vacant Brighton head coach role after Oscar Garcia resigned following the Seagulls' 6-2 aggregate play-off semi-final defeat to Derby. Levy added: "Since appointing Tim as assistant first-team coach in 2008 and then technical co-ordinator in 2010 and head of football development in 2012, we have been supportive of him during football management changes throughout that period. We have a talented squad and exciting young players coming through. We need to build on this season, develop our potential and inspire the kind of performances that we associate with our great club."