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Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has been sacked by the club just eight months into his tenure, the club announced. The former England international who won the Premier League title as a player with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 led the Villains to an FA Cup final last year, but Villa barely avoided relegation under him the same season – with the club finishing in 17th place.
The start to this season has been even worse. The Midlands side currently sits in the relegation zone four points from safety and has not won since the opening day of the season.
Sherwood’s final match in charge saw Villa lead against Swansea at Villa Park before going on to lose 2-1. The official statement from the club said the following – “The Board has monitored the performances closely all season and believes the results on the pitch were simply not good enough and that a change is imperative.
“However, the Club would like to place on record its sincere thanks to Tim for all his efforts during a difficult period last season and for the many positive contributions he has made to the entire football setup during his time with the Club. We wish him well in the future.”
Sherwood had spent nearly £50 million in transfers over the summer, bringing in eleven players including Jordan Ayew (£10m) and Idrissa Gueye (£9m) . He had to deal with the loss of top scorer Christian Benteke to Liverpool and Fabian Delph to Manchester City, but managed to hold on to the highly rated youngster Jack Grealish.
However, a single point from the last nine games was deemed simply not good enough and the man who was also dismissed by Tottenham Hotspur in 2014 after leading them to sixth place in the league now finds himself the shortest serving permanent manager in Aston Villa history (28 matches).
Sherwood has been the butt of light-hearted jabs over the years ever since 1994 when the then Blackburn Rovers owner Jack Walker vetoed manager Kenny Dalglish from signing a young Zinedine Zidane to the club with the now famous comment – "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?"
Assistant manager Kevin MacDonald has been appointed as interim manager as Villa begins the search for Sherwood’s replacement. Reports say that former Manchester United and current Real Sociedad manager David Moyes is one of the favourites for the post.
