Tim Sherwood believes Tottenham will look for an internal, stop-gap option to replace Thomas Frank.
Frank was sacked this morning after eight months in the role and with Spurs 16th in the Premier League table following last night’s home defeat by Newcastle.
Sherwood managed Spurs for six months but was sacked at the end of the 2013/14 season and replaced by Mauricio Pochettino.
His name has been mentioned as a potential interim boss while the club potentially wait for Pochettino to conclude his duties with the United States men’s team after this summer’s World Cup, but Sherwood himself believes the Spurs board will look elsewhere.
He told Sky Sports News: “I think there’s going to be a shortlist of people they could turn to.
“I genuinely believe they’re going to give it to John Heitinga. He’s the man there already, he’s got experience as a manager.
“It didn’t work out great for him, obviously, at Ajax but Tottenham in the Premier League is a great opportunity for someone who is not in a job.
“It’s a club I love, I know a lot about it and I’ve spent many years there in different capacities and it needs someone to give them a lift at the moment. Whether that’s me or whoever they decide to bring in, they’ve got a tough job on their hands.”
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Heitinga has managerial experience
Heitinga was brought in by Frank as an assistant coach last month after holding similar roles previously at West Ham and Liverpool, helping the latter to the Premier League title last season under Arne Slot.
His success on Merseyside saw him named Ajax boss in May last year – his second coaching spell with the Amsterdammers after an interim period in charge in 2023 – but the 42-year-old lasted just five months before being sacked after a 3-0 defeat at home to Galatasaray in the Champions League.
The likes of Roberto De Zerbi and Robbie Keane have also been linked with the Spurs vacancy but Sherwood says a short-term replacement is the ideal scenario until Pochettino becomes available.
He added: “Let’s face it, in the summer it’s going to be Pochettino.
“It will be impossible or almost impossible for Tottenham to look beyond Mauricio Pochettino with the clamour from the Tottenham support to bring the man back to the club.
“Whoever is going in there is going in for 12 games plus that Champions League run, there’s no future at the club for that person. So there will be very few who want to put their hands up and put themselves on offer for 12 games.”
Tottenham fans weren’t entertained under Frank – Sherwood
Sherwood was not surprised to see Frank depart and questioned his appointment in the first place. The Dane won just 13 of his 38 games in charge.
“You play however you want if you’re winning football matches,” he said. “If you don’t win football matches then, especially at Tottenham, they start looking at the style, are they being entertained? And the answer was absolutely not.
“But I think if you’ve seen Thomas Frank’s style of play down the years you would have known that it was very unlikely he was going to change his style. It was successful for him at Brentford.
“I think the nature of the job at Tottenham, comparing it to Brentford, it’s a completely different animal. The expectation at Tottenham, you can’t just win a game, lose one, draw a couple… it’s not acceptable, especially when you’re at home.
“The fans want to be entertained and they want to be successful and he didn’t give any of that.
“I feel sorry for him, you always feel sorry for any manager who loses his job, but I just felt it was inevitable in the end. They now find themselves in a really tricky position, this balancing act between now and the summer when there is going to a whole host of managers who would like to take the Tottenham job.”
Argentine Pochettino managed Spurs for five years and led them to the 2019 Champions League final where they lost to Liverpool. He was sacked in November 2019 and had spells at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea before linking up with the US.
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