Next QPR Manager: Why it won't be Tim Sherwood

Tim Sherwood delivered decent results at Tottenham without achieving popularity with fans

Michael Lintorn provides four reasons to lay Tim Sherwood, the odds-on favourite for the QPR job...

Tim Sherwood emerged as the favourite to succeed Harry Redknapp at QPR the second that the Betfair Next Manager market went live. A staggering 18,269 of the first 18,763 staked on the market was on the former Tottenham boss, with the highest odds snared being 2.1.

The 45-year-old is currently a 1.321/3 frontrunner, but doesn't that just make him an irresistible lay bet? Here's the case for taking Sherwood on...

He is too similar to Redknapp
When a manager leaves a club having underperformed - as Redknapp did, regardless of whether the knee surgery was the trigger for his resignation as has been claimed - you require a change of approach. The evidence of Sherwood's brief Spurs stint suggests that he is too similar: brash, media-friendly, tactically nave and seemingly prone to the mentality that foreign players lack the heart and fight of their heroic English counterparts.

The inexperience
Sherwood's only managerial work was five months as a stopgap at Tottenham where a poor start and struggling signings stifled expectations. At QPR, survival would be demanded. Several Premier League rookies failed at this target in recent years: Neil Adams at Norwich and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Cardiff last term, Steve Kean at Blackburn in 2011/12 and Alan Shearer at Newcastle in 2008/09. Both prior Tony Fernandes appointments - Mark Hughes and Redknapp - were the antithesis of this.

He is as much firestarter as extinguisher
Many in the media enjoy Sherwood because he is a magnificent interview: honest, amusing and unbothered by the consequence of his words. While this makes for brilliant entertainment, it also creates a lot of avoidable drama and can exacerbate crises, as was demonstrated when he accused his Spurs squad of a "lack of character" and faking injuries at various points last season. The last thing QPR need right now is someone else taking jabs at Adel Taarabt in his press briefings.

It isn't usually the early favourite
Except in instances when a club name the successor as they sack the incumbent, it is surprisingly rare for the initial frontrunner to get the job, with recruitment processes running longer and odds-on candidates being turned over more frequently. Sherwood to QPR just seems too convenient too, with his former Tottenham allies Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey already in place. Fernandes will know that reuniting the gang will attract a lot of cynicism both internally and externally.