Tottenham manager latest: Tim Sherwood calls for clarification after win as Spurs weigh up the options

Interim head coach wants to sort out his future with chairman Daniel Levy

Emmanuel Adebayor celebrates his second goal against Southampton (REUTERS)

Tottenham interim head coach Tim Sherwood hopes to meet club chairman Daniel Levy today to thrash out his future.

“Ideal for me is to have a chat with the chairman and see what’s best for the football club moving forward,” Sherwood said after his first victory, a 3-2 win at Southampton on Sunday.

“I need to know what they’re thinking. I don’t want this job for five minutes. That’s no interest to me. Are we going to move it forward or not? There are some great candidates out there for this job. It’s a massive club with history and tradition. But whatever happens needs to be right for me, too.”

Sherwood, whose day job is technical co-ordinator, would have no problem, he said yesterday, working with Franco Baldini, Tottenham’s technical director, despite reports of a feud between them. “I don’t know any different, do I? He’s not going to interfere. I can adapt to anything.”

However, he does not expect to have any say in transfers during the January window. “I wouldn’t have thought they’d give me that. If I’m going to be an interim manager, it wouldn’t be my responsibility. But we don’t need any players in. We’ve got a few injuries, but that’s the last thing we need: players.”

Sherwood’s win yesterday was largely thanks to his recall of Emmanuel Adebayor from a spell training with the youth team, but he denied that he had said anything to inspire him. “He’s a top player. It’s down to him. I’ve not had to gee him up. ‘There you go Ade, go and play and attack. Go and do what you do.’”

Adebayor, who was frozen out by Andre Villas-Boas at the beginning of the season after returning late to training from his brother’s funeral, said: “He [Sherwood] told me: ‘I need you, you have been around the block, Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid, you know how to play’. For me, that was big confidence, the new manager telling me that, and I am very happy for him.

“[When] my brother passed away, it was emotionally difficult, he was my senior brother. This is for him. He left a son behind. I want to take care of him and his family. I went to the funeral and when I came back I lost my place in the team. I kept doing my job and as my father told me ‘keep working hard’. Today it paid off and I am very happy.”

Sherwood also gave a debut to 19-year-old Nabil Bentaleb as a second-half substitute ahead of more experienced and expensive players such as Etienne Capoue. “A lot of these new players I don’t even know,” Sherwood said. “I’ve had three days training with them. It’s about the heat of the battle and knowing who you can trust, and the kid’s ready to play.

“At Southampton, with the greatest of respect, their youngsters get a chance. When you’re at a club like Tottenham spending £110m in the transfer window, it’s difficult to get an opportunity. But I knew what I was going to get. He trains like every day is the last day in the world, listens and has a fantastic attitude.”

Saints manager Mauricio Pochettino bemoaned the effects of injury and illness on his squad. “We’re going through a very tough time at the moment,” he said. “I am concerned about that situation, because we need to rediscover our defensive solidity. That’s our main goal at the moment. The team has dropped its levels after losing against Arsenal and Chelsea. You need a full squad to maintain those levels, and we’re struggling to do that right now.”