KMitch Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/tim-sherwood-still-absolutely-furious-15593714 Quote Tim Sherwood is still seething at Tom Fox’s decision to appoint Hendrik Almstadt as Aston Villa’s first ever sporting director. German Almstadt, who had a background of business and economics, followed Fox from Arsenal to Villa Park in 2015 and played a leading role in Villa’s recruitment that summer. Sherwood has often distanced himself from several of the players Villa signed the summer before the relegation campaign of 2015/16 and has once again taken aim at the club’s old regime. Speaking on Sky Sports’ Debate recently, Sherwood questioned the role of a sporting director. He said: “Tom Fox, who came from Arsenal, brought someone in. Hendrik what’s his name - I don’t know his name. “He crunched the numbers, he learnt the game from a screen, and he tried to justify everything by that. He was a very bright guy, an academic, and he was selling it to the chairman with the pie charts and the grids. “It totally took all of the recruitment away from me. He thought it was a good idea that (Christian) Benteke was sold, and Fabian Delph, Tom Cleverley wasn’t signed again and Ron Vlaar. That was the core, the foundation of my side, and to replace them we brought in some guys from French football who had no experience of the Premier League before. "But they were brought in without my wishes. It’s difficult when you’re the manager and you’ve got to deal with a group of players… I had to be part of it (recruitment), 100 per cent I had to be part of that. “Even if they wanted to spend 10 quid, it had to be my 10 quid.” Since leaving Villa in 2015 Sherwood hasn’t been able to find a route back into management. The 49-year-old briefly enjoyed a stint as director of football at Swindon Town but left following their relegation to League Two in 2017. What a load of BS... He 100% was behind the Richards/Lescott/Gestede signings. Those three were the first names on the teamsheet, regardless of their performances. Sherwood was trying to make a statement and only wanted to play "his" players at the time and alienated the "French football... no experience" players. When he had to rely on them to get results, they didn't want to play for him... Look at how Gueye, Veretout, and Amavi all ended up. Ayew was the exception of the bunch, but the other three all moved on to better things after that season. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuthority Posted December 26, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 26, 2018 He and Fox were both a pair of absolute chancers who had no business anywhere near the running of our great football club. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted December 26, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 26, 2018 I still like him, gave me some of the best moments in recent years watching Villa. And I believe he speaks the truth there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 Almstadt is currently Player Relations Director of European PGA Tour no idea why he was appointed here 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HanoiVillan Posted December 26, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted December 26, 2018 Yes, okay Tim. As if Benteke and Delph wouldn't have been sold if Almstadt hadn't been at the club. I can't believe what a pathetic load of self-pitying BS those quotes are. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 Probably would have but Sherwood was right, replacing the spine of the team with players from the French League is the reason this club are where we are now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 Absolute clearing in the woods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 Quote Speaking on Sky Sports’ Debate recently, Sherwood I bet it was a mass debate, knowing Tactics Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post OutByEaster? Posted December 26, 2018 Author Moderator Popular Post Share Posted December 26, 2018 2 hours ago, PaulC said: Probably would have but Sherwood was right, replacing the spine of the team with players from the French League is the reason this club are where we are now. Except that's not actually what we did - we replaced the central defenders with Lescott and Richards and bought Gestede to lead the line. That's the majority of our spine. Those three are widely thought to be Sherwood signings. And completely crap. The "spine" French signings in midfield were our player of the season in the year we went down, Idrissa Gueye - he's been excellent under good managers in the Premier League ever since and is now being linked with PSG - and Jordan Veretout, who Sherwood refused to speak to at training because he was in a mood and is currently being linked with Inter Milan. Sherwood seems the type of guy who would be interesting to sit next to and watch a game with, he's excitable and enthusiastic - but there's no way he should be anywhere near a dugout - he's just not a manager. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 (edited) In terms of signings it seems the issue was two fold over that summer of 2015 then. Who we signed and the manager not being on board with many of the signings and when that happens you are heading for big trouble. We have a system now where 3 or 4 people will have an input into identifying signings but the man ultimately responsible for getting the best out of them, currently Smith, will have the final say. That happens at plenty of clubs. The days of a manager being solely responsible for deciding ins and outs are long gone for a lot of clubs. That summer we needed a rebuild and knowing Sherwood wasn't going to be on board with many of the signings we had two choices. Either don't make those signings in the first place or replace the manager before the season starts. We did neither and the shit show that followed was the result. In fairness though a man who had never bought or sold a player should never have been manager during a summer where a massive rebuild was required. Edited December 27, 2018 by markavfc40 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 He has a point...but you were still.absolute shit whether that would have happened or not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Stevo985 Posted December 27, 2018 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted December 27, 2018 He’s full of shit. Even if you believe him, the players that were allegedly brought in without his say were our best players. And the players he wanted were Lescott, Richards and Gestede. Absolute chancer. The worst manager we’ve ever had and will never have a proper management career. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 15 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: He’s full of shit. Even if you believe him, the players that were allegedly brought in without his say were our best players. And the players he wanted were Lescott, Richards and Gestede. Absolute chancer. The worst manager we’ve ever had and will never have a proper management career. Also with his comments questioning the point of a sporting director is talking himself out of getting another job, as most clubs are going that way nowadays. Not that he had much hope of getting another manager's job anyway mind you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 He can talk all the waffle he wants and try to rewrite history, doesn't bother me. Unlike most parasites in this game, he will never work again regardless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 I think most of us were excited by the Richards signing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 (edited) Benteke and Delph simply had their release clauses met and tbh it was time for both to leave and further their careers even with the messy way Delph left. Vlaar in any case was surprise surprise injured the next season and don't think he properly played for AZ Alkmaar until 2016. Everton were finishing top 8 when they signed Cleverley and he still lived in the North west while he was on loan with us so easy move. I defend Tim but yes when you see the signings he came up with that summer....from memory he also wanted Townsend, Lennon and Tom Huddlestone. Huddlestone struggles to get in a game in this league, Lennon can't get a regular game for Burnley and also had serious off the field issues at Everton so would've been a McCormack type signing I'm afraid in 2015. Townsend would've been best of that and he struggles with his consistancy as we've seen at Palace. Ultimately we circled the drain for many seasons and summer 2015 it all just came to a head, lost so much quality and that was that. Some of the guys from the French league are good players as they've gone on to show since leaving us (Amavi making the French squad and Gana being a regular for Everton) but it was just too much of a void to fill particularly as our forward options were rubbish. Edited December 27, 2018 by VillaChris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted December 27, 2018 Moderator Share Posted December 27, 2018 Tim Sherwood always has been and always will be full of absolute horse shite. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 Sherwood is a classic example of a backwards manager (if you can even call him that) who trusts mediocre British players and basically nobody else. The game's moved on in the last 20 years since he was a player, but he hasn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Only2McInallys Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 When he was appointed it should have only been a short term appointment until the summer. We needed an experienced manager to carry out the rebuild.At the time I thought the team that went down was one of the worst villa teams I had ever seen but a lot of those players were actually pretty good they needed more experience around them some players like Terry etc and relegation might not have happened 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 27, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 27, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, PaulC said: I think most of us were excited by the Richards signing. It's a football managers job to sign players who will perform. Not players who will excite the fans when he's signed and then be utter shite. The Richards signing sums up why Sherwood was as terrible as he is. Edited December 27, 2018 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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