Mediawatch: Tim Sherwood converts the punditry hat-trick

Matt Stead
Tim Sherwood Spurs Man Utd

Hammer blow
Tim Sherwood was on punditry duty for Sky Sports on Thursday evening, offering his sage views on West Ham’s draw with Tottenham.

You might have noticed that Pedro Obiang scored a rather delightful goal at Wembley, with Heung-min Son equalising in similarly spectacular fashion.

Sherwood was more impressed with Obiang’s effort.

“Without being disrespectful to Obiang, that’s one in a career for him,” he said. “We’ve already see Son score like this before and we will see him score like this again, but this is not part of Obiang’s game and he has chipped in with a wonder strike.

“If he ever scores one like that ever again then I want to see it.”

No problem.

 

Johnny English
In other Tim Sherwood news…

Rule out Swansea at your peril.

 

Shear will
Let’s make it a hat-trick, shall we? Sherwood was in fine form on Thursday evening, and lasted barely half an hour before trying to take credit for Harry Kane’s rise to stardom at Tottenham. The former manager claimed he was responsible for “giving Harry Kane his debut” and his “chance” at the club.

Pesky facts: Kane made his debut for Tottenham in August 2011 under Harry Redknapp. He even played seven times under Andre Villas-Boas, including in the Premier League. And while Sherwood handed him his first Premier League start, it was not until he was five months into his managerial reign.

But Sherwood was not done. Unprompted, he had to address comparisons between Kane and a legendary England striker. But a man who, most importantly, Sherwood knows “very well”.

“Kane wants to break all Premiership records and a man who’s holding that is a guy I know very well as well, Alan Shearer. There are certainly a lot of similarities there, two English strikers who bully defenders and are good finishers off both their feet.

“It’s hard to say he will be better than him because Alan Shearer was some player but he’s certainly going the right way about it, I think he is a better player than Alan was at this age.”

A reminder that, at the age of 24, Alan Shearer was Blackburn’s top goalscorer as they won the Premier League title.

 

Stupid Girl
After reporting a Thursday morning exclusive that Jose Mourinho’s living arrangements were starting to frustrate Manchester United, who ‘feared’ he ‘could resign’, the Daily Mail sent Chris Wheeler to the Portuguese’s afternoon press conference.

They covered almost every word, from Mourinho stating outright that he “wants to stay,” to saying that he hasn’t “lost his passion” just because he “doesn’t behave as a clown on the touchline”.

They covered *almost* every word. Anyone have any idea why they omitted Mourinho’s “I can’t find a better word than garbage to define the [recent] talk” opener?

Perhaps they simply missed him saying it.

The Daily Mirror did not.

 

Ask a simple question
‘Now see it from Mourinho’s point of view. If he truly is dissatisfied with Manchester, if he is as miserable as he sounds half the time, where would he go from here? PSG?’ writes Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail.

Yea… oh, you’re not done?

‘There are many well-informed voices convinced this is his next destination but would they really want a coach increasingly – if somewhat unfairly – famed for his defensive organisation having spent £350million on two strikers?’

Still yes.

 

Hello Dean, you’re a stupid head
Says Mark Halsey in The Sun:

‘West Ham keeper Adrian was lucky not to give away a penalty when he clattered into Dele Alli mid-air in the second half. It was a late challenge – and would have been a foul anywhere else on the pitch.

‘Moments before, Harry Kane angrily demanded a penalty when he claiemd full-back Pablo Zabaleta brought him down.

But it’s hard to see how much, if any, contact there was. Ref Mike Dean got a lot of criticism for his penalty call against Arsenal at West Brom. Maybe he made a conscious decision to play if [sic] safe and not become the centre of attention.’

Someone’s taking the p*ss.

 

Message received
“I do not aim high with my requests, especially as in my history I’ve rarely been given the players I asked for. I always ended up at clubs who were running an austerity programme” – Antonio Conte, January 3.

‘ANDY CARROLL is the shock name on Chelsea’s list of targets for January’ – The Sun, January 5.

Don’t say they never listen, Antonio.

 

Absolute Jok
Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic held an impassioned press conference on Thursday, calling for the club to make more funds available for transfers. He said:

“This January I am really disappointed with the information around us. We don’t have any clear targets and, for the direction of the club, I have some information that we are strong enough to fight for the important targets.

“I don’t believe this. I am really disappointed with our situation and I expect the club will change their opinion. I don’t know if we don’t have the money or don’t want to spend the money, but we are not competitive enough for the period in front of us.

“The solution? I don’t know, but probably if the coach doesn’t trust that we are strong enough then probably an option that the club must be thinking about is sacking the coach, and this can be a good option for the club.”

Sky Sports not only carry those quotes, but include this third paragraph:

Sky Sports News understands Jokanovic is frustrated that he continues to be overlooked.’

Nothing gets past those sources.

 

The horse has bolted
Sky Sports do expertly cover their backs on Emre Can’s future, however.

Three minutes sure is a long time in the world of football transfers.

 

Recommended reading of the day
Gary Al-Smith on Mohamed Salah.

Paul Joyce on Virgil van Dijk.

Rob Dawson on Jose Mourinho.