“If he [Christian Benteke] didn’t have a clause in his contract then £100m wouldn’t have taken him away from us.

“He wasn’t worth selling for any money. No money can guarantee you Premier League survival – that player could.

“We scraped through relegation last season and were the worst team left in the Premier League. We lost our three best players and that should put it in perspective. I’ve seen it first-hand, I’ve seen a lot of players come in to try and replace one; it’s difficult. You do drop – we can’t afford to drop. We have to make sure we stay at least where we were, and higher. That’s the size of the task ahead. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy and I think all the decision-makers at the club appreciated that.

“You don’t always get what you want but certainly every player who came in is a name I would have cast my eye over” – he admitted that he could not guarantee when everything would click.

“You can only speed up the process by doing what we’re doing on the training pitch.

“There is no magic wand. You have more assurances if you know that people have played in the league before. It’s difficult. The group we’ve got, I’m pleased with. But they’re the unknown in this division, one million per cent.

“I love to have a go every game but you work with what you’ve got.

“I want everyone to be as good as Benteke or as lively as Delph but we’re working with a different group and you have to find a way which is best for the team. Sometimes you can’t play the swashbuckling style because of the personnel. Now Adama [Traoré] might be able to give us that – he’s certainly looked better this week and he can be a swashbuckling player. But we’re talking about a 19-year-old boy who’s come from League Two in Spain, which I could still play in with respect.”

Tim Sherwood pre-match excoriates the transfer market follies of Lerner, Fox, Almstadt and Riley.


“We played on the front foot here at the Bridge, we matched them initially. We believe we’ll stay in this division, though it’s clear for everyone to see that we’re a side in transition.

“I will stand at the front and take the brunt of it. I don’t want my players shrinking and running into the corners and crying - that’s what’s expected of me, and I won’t do that.

“I didn’t hear my supporters shouting for me to leave. I’ll keep swinging, even if I’m backed into a corner.”

Tim Sherwood, Saturday, 17 October 2015.