- Jun 7, 2004
- 18,106
- 45,030
If he didn't know about capoue, then he was not doing his job properly.
Have you not read what I have written twice in this thread? I'll write it a third time. Sherwood's comment was not about Capoue. It was a pop at AVB for excluding him from first team training, which he plainly resented. The reason he was so unfamiliar with Capoue's style that he picked Bentaleb instead was that Sherwood had not been permitted to watch Capoue train. He was thus not being permitted to do his job properly. That was his point.
You and others are falling in with another one of those rigid internet mob-sentiment reactions where everything Sherwood ever said or thought has to be twisted around to make him seem like a malicious berk, i.e., to fit in with the caricature of Sherwood that has become the acceptable version of history.
I'm not like that. My memory doesn't work like most people's. I remember what was said (or what I saw) and why - and then I don't get swayed by subsequent events or internet spin.
The other day I posted something critical of AVB and someone went off on one about me being an 'AVB-hater' or something of that nature. Now I'm posting something that isn't a knee-jerk expression fo scorn at Sherwood and I'm bound to be accused of being a 'Sherwood-lover'.
I don't work like that. I report what I see (or saw) and hear (or heard). I don't do heroes and villains, I just criticise all of our managers when they do something stupid and laud them when they excel.
In this case, Sherwood is being reported as having ostracised Capoue. That is not what happened. He picked Bentaleb because he had not been permitted to watch Capoue and knew that Bentaleb, from his youth squad, could do the necessary job. He said so, explicitly, at the time. Had Bentaleb failed, then I cannot tell you whether he would have selected Capoue. I suspect not, because I think he got a [false, judging by this season's evidence] impression that Capoue did not train vigorously - there was a plausible rumour to that effect.
But the obvious reason why Capoue spent the rest of the season on the sidelines was because Sherwood had promoted Bentaleb, who did well, following which Sherwood was keen to take credit for his protegé and continued to select him until Bentaleb demonstrated that, whilst he was fine against weaker teams, he couldn't cope with top-5 opposition. Then Bentaleb got benched.