FRIENDS, BUT NOT TONIGHT
Sherwood’s bond with Ramsey and Ferdinand put on hold at Villa Park
MOST afternoons, after the players had drifted away from Tottenham’s training centre, Tim Sherwood would sit for hours with his coaches Chris Ramsey and Les Ferdinand in the staff canteen.
They were always together, forming an alliance after Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy made Sherwood responsible for the club’s youth and Under 21 programmes in 2008.
This evening they will be in opposing dug-outs at Villa Park, trying to lead their teams away from relegation danger in these final, fraught weeks of the Barclays Premier League season.
Whatever happens between Sherwood’s Aston Villa and Ramsey’s QPR, where Les Ferdinand is now head of football operations, the three men will remain firm friends.
The bond is strong even if Sherwood is blocking Ramsey’s mobile phone calls temporarily.
‘What would we talk about?’ said Sherwood yesterday. ‘You can’t share team notes. I keep red-buttoning him! All we could say is, “How’s the family, are you all right? OK, see you Tuesday”.’
Sherwood and Ramsey forged their friendship at Tottenham. Someone, somewhere is always working an angle with Levy, but they looked out for each other at a club regarded as the most political in the English top flight.
Intriguingly, Sherwood hinted yesterday that if Ramsey’s tenure at Loftus Road proves short-lived, he would ask to bring him to Villa.
‘I would have to speak to the club about whether we could find a role for him here,’ confirmed Sherwood. ‘I know I’m biased but he is up there with the very best coaches I have ever seen. He is a street kid. He knows how to talk to them. You could ask him two minutes before to put on a session for 40 players and he could do it.’
Sherwood and Ramsey are credited with guiding some of the brightest young talents at Spurs and helping them break into the first team.
Harry Kane, Andros Townsend and Ryan Mason, who all played in England’s 1-1 draw in Italy last week, were brought through Tottenham’s youth system by this coaching collective.
Some at Spurs bridle at the idea that the trio are wholly responsible for their development, but you can’t deny their influence. Next season, for example, England Under 21 midfielder Alex Pritchard will return from his loan at Brentford and is expected to be named in Tottenham’s 25-man first-team squad.
Joshua Onomah, who made his debut for Tottenham in January and also captains the youth team, is another discovery.
Sherwood took to Ramsey when he was gaining knowledge of youth football after he accepted a new role at Tottenham in 2012. Ramsey, who played right back for Brighton in the 2-2 draw with Manchester United in the 1983 FA Cup final, was brought into Tottenham in 2005 by academy director John McDermott and initially assigned to the Under 14 team.
The pair had met at the FA, where Ramsey had worked after an ill-fated coaching spell alongside former Luton player Ricky Hill at Kenilworth Road. Ramsey still lives in Bedfordshire, a short drive from Sherwood’s imposing house in Dagnall, Buckinghamshire, which he bought when he was a Blackburn player.
When Sherwood accepted his role as development co-ordinator, shipping players out on loan to gain experience (often to Swindon, where Lee Power, a friend from his playing days at Norwich, is chairman), Tottenham’s players flourished. On matchdays he often scouted players with Ferdinand. As they became more involved with youth development, preferring to educate their own players rather than recruit expensive youngsters, they gained Levy’s trust.
When Andre Villas-Boas pushed the self-destruct button in December 2013, all three moved into the dug- out following Sherwood’s appointment. It was short-lived. Sherwood and his staff left at the end of the season after Levy opted for Mauricio Pochettino. Sherwood was expected to follow Ferdinand and Ramsey to QPR when Harry Redknapp quit.
But he had also struck up a relationship with Villa director of recruitment Paddy Riley and that is the reason Sherwood and Ramsey face each other tonight.