TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR MANAGER Tim Sherwood said the side’s current run of good form might do little for his job prospects unless he delivers Champions League football to White Hart Lane.
Spurs enjoyed their fifth Premier League win in six matches since Sherwood replaced sacked predecessor Andre Villas-Boas courtesy of a 3-1 win away to struggling Swansea on Sunday.
Emmanuel Adebayor was on target twice either side of a Chico Flores own-goal, with Wilfried Bony’s consolation effort 12 minutes from time too late for Swansea.
Victory left Tottenham fifth in the table but level on points with Liverpool, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League place on offer to English clubs.
“We know there will be tougher tests ahead, but it’s been a good start for me in the league,” said Sherwood, promoted from within Spurs’ backroom staff last month and given a contract as head coach until the end of the 2014/15 season by the north London club’s chairman, Daniel Levy.
“I think if the season was to end tomorrow, though, the chairman wouldn’t be too happy because we’re fifth. The final league position has to meet the expectations of the club otherwise it’s ‘Goodbye Charlie.’”
Former Tottenham and England midfielder Sherwood added: “The club need to finish in fourth place, they want to finish in fourth place. Anything other than that is going to be a disappointment.
“Realistically we should be in and amongst it. But it’s not easy, is it? There are a lot of top teams up there and no one seems to be giving any leeway.
“I keep looking at results thinking: ‘Surely they’re going to drop points here today and they don’t.’
“They’re probably looking at us today thinking: ‘They might slip up at Swansea.’ So we’re not giving anything away either.“It’s going to go right down to the wire, it’s just about keeping that consistency and belief. It will probably boil down to how you get on amongst each other in that mini-league. Our next game is Man City (who are second in the table) so we’ll see what happens there.”
But there was no hiding Sherwood’s joy at Spurs’ win in south Wales.
“We’re delighted with the win, it’s a tough place to come and play.
“We never had a shot on target until we scored. However, I always thought we were the more threatening side.
Difficult
“I just thought we had to find that final pass, a bit more quality in the final third and we would open them up. For an hour I think we did that.”
Defeat meant Swansea, now just three points above the relegation zone, had gone eight league games without a win and concerned manager Michael Laudrup said: “We have to admit it is a difficult moment for us.
“We have not won in the league for some time. The players have great attitude, they dominated a very good side for 30 minutes, had some good chances, but the first time Spurs arrived in our box, they scored.
“Of course when you are not winning, that hurts even more. There is not much we can do,” the Denmark great added.
“All we can do is win in the league. Unfortunately a win in the cup (Swansea knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup) doesn’t count as points in this competition!”
