Patrick Barclay: Tim Sherwood can fix it for Tottenham to avoid the Europa League

Whenever the subject of quick fixes in football management come up, so will the name of Tim Sherwood.

It has taken him less than 16 months, with his work first at Tottenham and now Aston Villa, to bring stability into disrepute.

The steering of Villa into the FA Cup Final was not even half of his latest job. Sherwood still has to find a way of beating Arsenal at Wembley and, even more importantly, complete the task of guiding his new club away from the relegation trouble they encountered under Paul Lambert.

But it’s fair to say Villa have been transformed even more dramatically than Spurs were when Sherwood took over from Andre Villas Boas.

Then, he did it by temporarily rescuing the career of Emmanuel Adebayor (though the promotion of youngsters such as Nabil Bentaleb was just as significant). Now it’s Christian Benteke leading from the front.

It was obvious, when Villa went to White Hart Lane recently (and won), that some Spurs fans had reservations about Sherwood. No doubt they were judging him on first-team form towards the end of his reign, when everyone knew he would be sacked, rather than his youth development record.

But the folks from the Lane should get right behind Sherwood now. And they surely will, for if Arsenal are overcome, a Europa League place will go to Sherwood’s Villa.

And that could put paid to Spurs’ chances of qualifying for this often poisoned chalice.

Is no Europe at all better than the Thursday routine? Liverpool, who finished second last season, might wonder.

As might Spurs themselves; they had no European distraction while earning their one season in the Champions League.

And what of Newcastle? How they suffered for their Europa League sojourn under Alan Pardew. Pochettino will try to banish such thoughts as he leads his men to his former club Southgampton — rivals for one of those Europa places — at the weekend.

But it’s a dilemma nonetheless.