Tim Sherwood may just be the most confident, self-assured man in the world.
Not only does he believe he can keep Aston Villa (18th place, 22 points, one point from safety) from being relegated out of the Premier League, but he also apparently believes he’s destined for levels of greatness only seen by Wayne Rooney, as a player, and Pep Guardiola, as a manager.
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Sherwood, speaking to reporters ahead of Saturday’s game against Stoke City (Watch live online via Live Extra, 10 am ET), from ESPN FC:“All I can do is do my best and I think my best is going to be good enough. Some experienced managers are very good and some are not very good.
“I think experience is overrated. If it was all about experience Wayne Rooney wouldn’t play for Everton at 16.
"[Pep] Guardiola didn’t have to go out and work in the lower leagues did he? It helps when you have the best players in the world. Don’t get me wrong. Not everyone has to take the same pathway.
“I am grateful for the opportunity here and I will give it everything.”
Look, there’s about a thousand different ways we can go from here in dissecting Sherwood’s comments, so I’ll stick to a pair of basic observations:
1. This man is delusional. Wayne Rooney is the best English player of his generation, by a long, long way. Cherrypicking an example like Rooney — roughly one-in-100,000 — shows how out of touch with reality Sherwood really is. Is he trying to convince us, or himself, that he’s good enough?
2. You will not — I repeat, you will not — have “the best players in the world” at your disposal at Villa, Tim. Messi isn’t walking through that door. Neither is Xavi, nor Iniesta. Sherwood has managed 28 first-team games in his career, and he’s using Pep Guardiola, a two-time Champions League-winning manager, as the example for why we should believe he’ll be a huge success.
Dear Villa fans,
Best of luck. You’re going to need it.
Signed,
Spurs fans who remember last year
