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Sherwood: I'd rather beat West Brom than win Euro Millions

Aston Villa's last-gasp win over West Brom got Tim Sherwood's pulse racing © Getty Images

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Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood was so delighted with his side's last-gasp win over West Brom that he said the three points were better than his wife winning the Euro Millions jackpot.

"It's incredible, a fantastic feeling to win," he said. "My wife said she did the Euro Millions and gets £54 million if she wins. I'd rather take the three points and I genuinely mean that."

Sherwood shouldn't be too financially insecure, though, considering he signed an 18-month deal with Tottenham in 2013 but only worked five months of it before parting company with the club at the end of last season.

Sherwood's tenure at Spurs was colourful to say the least © Getty Images

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He also caused a stir by performing a bizarre routine at the end of the game, when he placed two fingers to his neck - as if looking for a pulse - before nodding enthusiastically and giving the home fans a big thumbs up.

It's not the first time Sherwood has hit the headlines with his somewhat colourful press conferences and on-field performances.

He has repeatedly trumpeted the fact that his win ratio at Spurs was second to none, and, after a 2-1 defeat at home to Stoke in his first game in charge, said he has "managed for one game and scored one goal - good ratio".

Towards the end of last season, when Sherwood was under increasing pressure at Spurs, he announced that he was the best manager in the club's Premier League history.

Studying a sample of just 17 games, Sherwood concluded: "The record's good - it is better than any Premier League manager in the history of this club. There has been no one at this club who has done a better job at the Premier League. My record stands for itself."

Sherwood also claimed that Spurs would have been in the Champions League if he had been in charge all season, despite the fact that his points per game average was 1.91, while fourth-placed Arsenal's was 2.08.

He also drew criticism for distancing himself from a dreadful performance in a 4-0 defeat to Chelsea and publicly hanging his Spurs players out to dry.

"It's a lack of characters", he said. "Too many of them being nice to each other, and you need to show a bit more guts and not want to be someone's mate all the time. They need to drag it out of each other. It hurts me and I won't forget about this when we hit the motorway, but some might."

Sherwood has taken credit for Harry Kane's success this season © Getty Images

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But Sherwood, who gained the nickname 'Tactics Tim' at White Hart Lane, certainly pleased one Tottenham fan when he called a supporter down from the stands and told him to sit in the manager's seat during a game against Aston Villa, even handing over his infamous gilet.

"That guy's an expert, seriously. Every week he tells me what to do," he said. "So I gave him the opportunity to do the job. He bottled it at first but then he swallowed it. It was just good banter."

When asked if the fan was in the running for the job on a permanent basis, Sherwood couldn't resist the chance to take a dig at the Tottenham hierarchy. "No, he's English," he joked.

Eight months out of the game didn't hurt Sherwood's pride, either. Upon taking the Aston Villa job, he credited himself with current manager Mauricio Pochettino and striker Harry Kane success this season.

"Pochettino has done a really good job there, but mine's still up there to be shot at," he said. "He's inherited a good bunch of young players who were developed by myself.

"He's willing to play them as well, there are a lot of big stars there and he could have discarded [Ryan] Mason and gone with [Nabil] Bentaleb, but he's not done that so fair play to him.

"I respect him for that. It's good for me - I left a bit of a legacy there with those young players and he's carried it on. I admire him for that.

"If I hadn't resisted the club wanting to loan him [Kane] out last January, he wouldn't be Harry Kane now.

"He's had to be very strong mentally, he's had to fight it. They haven't always sung 'He's one of our own.' I'd had Harry Kane since he was 11 or 12, don't forget. It makes a lot of difference, I know them better than their parents as footballers."

Sherwood picked up the nickname 'Tactics Tim' at Spurs © Getty Images

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