Timothy Alan Sherwood (born 6 February 1969) is an English former football player and manager. As a player, he was a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

from 1987 until 2005, notably as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of Blackburn Rovers'

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

title-winning side in 1995. He also played for

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

and Coventry City. He made three appearances for the England national team in 1999. Sherwood began his coaching career at Tottenham Hotspur, progressing from assistant first team coach to manager in a five-year spell, then managing the club from December 2013 to his dismissal in May 2014. He resumed his managerial career at

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

in February 2015, taking them to that season's

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

and saving them from relegation from the

, until being sacked in October 2015. Sherwood was director of football at

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

from November 2016 until June 2017.

Club career

Early career

Born in

Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 36,322, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, Sherwood supported

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

as a child. He made his debut for

against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

on 12 September 1987. He made a total of 32 league appearances in Division Two for Watford before moving to

in July 1989. He played 88 games scoring 13 goals for Norwich before joining Blackburn Rovers in February 1992.

Blackburn Rovers

As one of

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time as well as one of Celtic's, Liv ...

's first signings for Blackburn, he initially struggled to make the first team but went on to become a core player. Under his captaincy, Blackburn finished second in the Premiership in 1993–94 before winning it the following season.

Tottenham Hotspur

With Sherwood unsettled in 1999 and having family and business links in

, George Graham paid a reported fee of £3 million to bring him to Tottenham Hotspur in the first week of February 1999. He made his debut for Spurs as an 87th-minute substitute for Mauricio Taricco in the 0–0 draw with Coventry on 6 February. He was cup-tied for their victory in the 1999 Football League Cup Final. Sherwood won a runners-up medal with Spurs in the 2002 League Cup Final, when they were beaten by his former club Blackburn.

Portsmouth

In January 2003, Sherwood informed the press that he had had a major argument with Spurs manager Glenn Hoddle and that Hoddle had told him that he would never play for the club again. He left Tottenham, moving to Portsmouth on an initial four-month contract on 29 January. Upon signing he immediately became a regular in the side that went on to win the First Division Championship that season, scoring once in the process, in a 5–0 win away to Millwall on 1 March. Sherwood remained an important member of the Pompey squad for the first half of the 2003–04 Premier League season, scoring a brace in a 5–2 win against Third Division

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

in the League Cup second round on 23 September. He broke his leg against Tottenham on 26 December, after a challenge by his former teammate Taricco. It was to be his last match for the club as, along with fellow veteran

Teddy Sheringham Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham (born 2 April 1966) is an English football manager and former player. He played as a forward, mostly as a second striker, in a 24-year professional career. Sheringham was part of the Manchester United team tha ...

, he was released in the 2004 close season.

Coventry City

On 9 July 2004, Sherwood signed for Peter Reid's Coventry City on a two-year deal with Coventry and said that he would "desperately like to achieve promotion" with the club. Although he was the captain, he was unpopular with fans, due to his frequent injuries, high wages and decision to do television punditry during his spell. At the end of the 2004–05 season, Coventry had not been promoted and the club announced that Sherwood could leave on a free transfer. He parted company with the Sky Blues by mutual consent on 1 July 2005.

International career

During his time with Blackburn Rovers he added an England B cap to the England Under 21 honours he picked up whilst at Norwich. At the age of 30, Sherwood made his debut for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in their 3–1 UEFA Euro 2000 qualification victory over

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

on 27 March 1999, under new manager

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. Nicknamed "King Kev" or "Mighty Mouse", Keegan was recognised for his dribbling ability, as well as his finishing and presence in the air, and is regard ...

. He earned a further two caps that year: in a 1–1 friendly draw with

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in Budapest on 28 April, and a goalless qualifying draw with

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

at Wembley on 5 June.

Managerial career

Tottenham Hotspur

In October 2008, Sherwood joined

as assistant first team coach, under new manager Harry Redknapp. Sherwood became Technical Director in 2012 and in that role led Spurs' Under-21 side in the inaugural Under-21 Premier League season, guiding the side to finish top in both group and elite stages. Sherwood's side eventually lost the league final 3–2 to Manchester United. On 16 December 2013, Tottenham announced that Sherwood would "assume first team coaching duties" following the departure of

André Villas-Boas Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas (; born 17 October 1977) is a Portuguese sports executive, and former professional Manager (association football), football manager, who is currently the List of FC Porto presidents, president of Port ...

as the manager. He lost his first game in charge, 2–1 at home to West Ham in the fifth round of the League Cup, but four days later managed a 3–2

win over Southampton. On 23 December, Spurs named Sherwood as their new head coach, handing him an 18-month contract until the end of the 2014–15 season. His last match as Spurs manager was a 3–0 win over

on 11 May 2014. With this win Sherwood achieved a sixth-place finish in the league with Spurs with a total of 69 league points. Tim Sherwood was best known for being on the receiving end of Jorge Jesus' famous touchline dance, when he held up 3 fingers to indicate that Benfica had just scored 3 goals during their Europa League tie in 2014. Sherwood was sacked by chairman Daniel Levy on 13 May 2014.

Aston Villa

On 14 February 2015, Sherwood was appointed as the new manager of

. The announcement was made via the club's official

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

page, following the sacking of Paul Lambert on 11 February. Although he attended the following day's 2–1 win over Leicester City in the

and gave a half-time team-talk, his first game in official control of the team was at home to Stoke City almost a week later. Villa lost the game 2–1 after a 93rd-minute penalty from Victor Moses. After also losing his second game in charge, this time going down 1–0 to

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

, Sherwood's first win came on 3 March 2015 against West Midlands rivals

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

. The game finished 2–1, with Christian Benteke scoring a last-minute penalty, which shadowed the decision that went against Villa in the Stoke game. Sherwood led Villa to Wembley for the first time since 2010 just four days later, after winning 2–0 in the FA cup quarter-final again against West Bromwich Albion. Sherwood then led Villa to a third straight win, a 4–0 away win over relegation rivals

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

in which all goals were scored in the first half. On 19 April 2015, Aston Villa reached the

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

for the first time since

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, coming from behind to defeat Liverpool 2–1 in their semi-final at

. However, they went on to lose the final 4–0 to Arsenal. After losing six consecutive matches, including a nine-game winless run which left the team 19th in the table, Sherwood was sacked on 25 October 2015.

Swindon Town

On 10 November 2016, Sherwood was appointed director of football at League One side

. On 14 June 2017, it was confirmed that Sherwood would leave his post, following the club's relegation to League Two.

Media work

Sherwood has often appeared as footballing pundit on Al-Jazeera Sport offering comments on English football. He was also a pundit for Setanta Sports for their

coverage. Most recently, Sherwood has worked as a pundit on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

's Premier League Goals Show.

Career statistics

Club

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Blackburn Rovers *

: 1994–95 Tottenham Hotspur *

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

runner-up: 2001–02 Portsmouth *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

: 2002–03 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

: 1994–95 Premier League

Manager

Aston Villa *

runner-up: 2014–15

References

External links

*
Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherwood, Tim 1969 births Living people People from Borehamwood Footballers from Hertfordshire English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Watford F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players England men's under-21 international footballers England men's B international footballers England men's international footballers English football managers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. non-playing staff Aston Villa F.C. managers Swindon Town F.C. non-playing staff Tottenham Hotspur F.C. managers Premier League managers English association football commentators English football coaches