Tottenham head coach Tim Sherwood says he has “got the bug” to be a full-time manager, even if he is not afforded the chance to realise that ambition in his present job next season.
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Sherwood is widely expected to be replaced by Netherlands boss Louis van Gaal in another coaching shake-up at White Hart Lane this summer and claimed in his Friday news conference that he was no clearer on whether he would be retained as Tottenham boss for next season.
But the former Blackburn Rovers midfielder said his appetite to continue his fledgling management career had been enhanced by his experience with Spurs.
“It’s been an honour to manage this great football club and I have enjoyed it,” Sherwood stated. “It has been different and an experience like no other.
"Unless you have ever stood in that technical area and had the expectations of the whole football club, not only the 35,000 fans at home and those that travel away, but also the 45,000 on the waiting list at Tottenham and their support around the world, then you don’t know what it is like to be a manager.
“I have enjoyed it. Perversely, I’ve enjoyed the pressure. You hear of a lot of managers saying they could do without the pressure, but I’m not sure I could do without it now.”
Sherwood insisted he had not held discussions with Tottenham about resuming the technical co-ordinator position he held before replacing Andre Villas-Boas as first-team boss in December, while he was also keen to distance himself from links with the Norwich job recently vacated by Chris Hughton.
“Listen, enough people have poached for my job while I’ve been here and I think it’s disrespectful, so I wouldn’t at all start doing it for someone else’s job,” was Sherwood’s riposte to questions about his links to potential managerial positions.
“Since the time I have come in, the speculation has never eased. I have always fended off the questions, I don’t see a difference from the first day I took training until this morning. If there is a job without that side of it, I would like it, but I don’t know if there is.
“The continual speculation doesn’t help anyone and I’ve had that from the start, so I’m quite used to that now. Once you guys stop asking who else is coming in next year, then I’ll go and see a doctor. I think any day in management is a learning curve. This has been a baptism of fire to be honest, but it’s certainly one that I relish.
“My family are saying ‘why? Why do you want to do it?’ but it’s in me and it’s something that’s inbred in me. I’m a winner and I will make myself ill before I don’t succeed. That’s the drive that I’ve always had. I had that as a player and I’ll have that as a manager. I have it in life -- if there’s something I want to do then I’m going to do it.”