Tim gets chance to earn his Spurs
Jose rang his compatriot when he lost the Spurs job
TOTTENHAM insist they are ready to keep Tim Sherwood on as manager beyond today’s trip to Southampton – though Ronald De Boer and Rafa Benitez remain the leading candidates to take over if he fails.
Sherwood, the club’s technical co-ordinator, will be given his chance until the end of the season because he knows the club and players well and, crucially, he is well liked by chairman Daniel Levy.
Though sources at the north London club maintain they have been contacted by several high-profile managers to succeed Andre VillasBoas – axed after recent defeats to Manchester City (6-0) and Liverpool (5-0) – they say that they have not pursued anyone actively.
However, there has been contact with Ajax coach De Boer and Levy has previously sounded out former Liverpool and Chelsea boss Benitez, now at Napoli, about the White Hart Lane job.
Neither are available currently and it is understood that De Boer would not walk out on Johan Cruyff’s Ajax mid- season, nor would Benitez from Napoli.
However, both would be likely to be available for an approach in the summer – when Tottenham would have a much bigger pool of managers to choose from and by which time Sherwood will have been tested in full.
Sherwood is likely to be in charge through the
JOSE MOURINHO has ended his feud with Andre Villas-Boas and openly questioned the wisdom of his sacking by Spurs. The Chelsea manager telephoned his former protege after his fellow Portuguese was drummed out of White Hart Lane earlier this week. In doing so, Mourinho brought to a close the lingering animosity between the rivals.
Asked if he felt sorry for Villas-Boas, Mourinho replied: ‘Of course. When they gave him three, four or five years of contract, they did it because they trusted him and thought he was the right man to be their manager. They have a couple of bad results. I don’t think it is a reason to change the trust and change the manager.
‘But in football nothing surprises me. Every case is a different case. I don’t know what was going on. I spoke with Andre three times in the last six months – one in a manager’s meeting, another when we played against him and another time a couple of days ago. I just said, “Come on! The world didn’t finish. Let’s go! Tomorrow’s another day and another job will come, so happy Christmas!’’
‘We didn’t speak about the case because only people inside know what is going on.’
However, the Chelsea boss might have had in mind how Villas-Boas had entered into a war of words with some of his detractors, breaking a golden Mourinho rule.
‘Everyone is criticised and the point is to keep your identity and believe in yourself,’ he said. ‘If you believe in what you are doing and your ideas are the ones that you believe deeply, you don’t have to be influenced by the critics. I learned that. The dogs bark. You keep walking.
‘It’s something you have to learn. If not you lose energy, you lose concentration on the basic things of your job.’
Meanwhile Chelsea star Ashley Cole is considering retiring at the end of the season after being frozen out at Stamford Bridge by Jose Mourinho.
Cole is attracted by the prospect of ending a glittering 14-year career at the top by playing for England in next summer’s World Cup in Brazil.
The 33-year-old will make history by becoming the first Englishman to play in four World Cup finals – a fitting way to hang up his boots having won a clean sweep of trophies with Arsenal and Chelsea – and more than 100 caps for his country.
Cole is widely regarded as the best-ever English left-back but has struggled to keep a place in Chelsea’s line-up this season under Mourinho.
In recent weeks, he has suffered the humiliation of seeing his place taken by unsung Spaniard Cesar Azpilicueta.
The Chelsea manager has already told Cole he will be on the bench for tomorrow’s Premier League clash against his former club Arsenal.
The defender will stay at Chelsea for the remaining six months of his £170,000-a-week contract despite fuming at his recent treatment by Mourinho. He believes he will be taken to Brazil by England manager Roy Hodgson regardless of how many games he gets for his club.
Longer term, he is reluctant to sign a new deal to become a bit-part player, with Chelsea having already achieved so much.
The option of joining Spurs or Liverpool does not appeal and even the prospect of a year in the sun with an MLS club in America is not particularly enticing. He already has an estimated fortune of £25million.
Although Cole has not made up his mind, friends say he is close to accepting he would prefer to quit at the top rather than struggling on.
Cole has already become one of the most successful English players of all-time having won three Premier League titles, a record seven FA Cups, a League Cup, Champions League and Europa League with Arsenal and Chelsea.
He has won 106 England caps, putting him joint-fifth with Sir Bobby Charlton in the all-time list. As well as playing at the World Cup in 2002, 2006 and 2010, he also enjoyed a legendary duel with Cristiano Ronaldo at Euro 2004.
But Mourinho was unhappy at Cole being photographed in the same nightclub as Arsenal players last week, saying: ‘It was a free day for them, so I’m not a father. I’m a manager.
‘I can control what they do when they are with me. I cannot control what they do when they are not with me.’
Chelsea would like Cole to stay next season.