Perhaps Tim Sherwood will think twice in future about asking his players to show they have the balls for a relegation fight now he has seen the effect his words had on Alan Hutton.
The Aston Villa full-back will be missing for the next two games after picking up his 10th booking of the season in Tuesday’s victory over West Bromwich Albion though most people think he got off lightly for a studs-up assault on Saido Berahino’s groin. Certainly neither Villa nor Hutton could have complained had the referee shown a straight red, and most managers other than Tony Pulis would have made more of the fact that Hutton went on to have a hand in Villa’s stoppage-time winner.
Hutton’s foul was the only blemish on an otherwise impressive performance by Sherwood’s Villa, and the only incident that contradicted the manager’s stated preference for calm, orderly football. “We’ve got a group of players who are not really suited to a relegation battle,” Sherwood said. “We might not be able to do the old-fashioned blood and thunder style to dig out results. We have to play as if we are not in the relegation battle, we have to pass the ball and move.”
Maybe the message did not quite get through to Hutton, although the Scottish international has always been a man of contradictions. Over a chequered career which has seen him play principally for Rangers, Tottenham and Villa, with loan spells at Nottingham Forest, Mallorca and Bolton, Hutton has divided opinion. Some see him as a liability, possibly one of the dirtiest players in the Premier League, while just as many spring to his defence as an honest, committed and even thoughtful defender.
An incident somewhat similar to the Berahino challenge from a game against West Brom earlier in his Villa career brought a typical, two-sided reaction. Roy Hodgson, the then Baggies manager, complained about a thuggish and “vicious” challenge on Shane Long which went unpunished by the referee but sidelined the Albion player for several weeks with a chipped bone in his knee. “I was disappointed with that challenge and not only saddened by it but angered by it,” Hodgson said. “I don’t think there is any room in football for those type of challenges on the field.”
It appeared Hodgson had a point, yet Villa launched the hoary old argument that despite all appearances, the player was not really like that. “We know how Alan has been painted but he’s not that type of player and that has been proven over the years,” the then assistant manager Peter Grant said. “His biggest problem sometimes is that he’s desperate to hit the ground running, there’s an impatience to his game. But I don’t think anyone has ever said that Alan is aggressive, goes over the ball and is dirty. People say he is an attacking full-back who likes to get forward.” For his part Hutton apologised to Long insisting: “I would never go out and mean to hurt somebody.”
That was in 2011 and, even if it was true at the time, people are saying Hutton goes aggressively over the ball right now. Too pumped up is perhaps the best expression, not so much desperate to hit the ground running as willing to run into anything in his way. If Sherwood really wants a calmer, more cerebral approach he may well be better off without him, except that only last year Hutton’s fellow Scot Dougie Freedman took him on loan at Bolton and was impressed by his quiet professionalism.
“He was not getting games for Villa at the time, he was out of Paul Lambert’s plans but I noticed he still played with great composure for Scotland so I asked Gordon Strachan about him,” Freedman said. “Gordon told me he was a decent type who went about his business quietly and effectively, so I thought I would inquire about him as loan cover. When I signed him I was immediately struck by his quiet nature. You never once heard him moaning, blaming Paul Lambert or his training regime for what had happened at Villa.
“He just took ownership of his own career and played his way back. He showed big enough bollocks at Bolton to win himself another opportunity at Villa and, when it came along, it did not surprise me in the least that he was able to accept it without rancour. Not many players would show the same strength of character in difficult circumstances.”
Freedman even attempted to sign Hutton permanently before his Bolton tenure came to an end but his wages were a sticking point and he ended up with a new contract at Villa, Lambert having completely changed his mind about the value of the player. “Strangely enough, I always had a good relationship with him,” Lambert said before his own dismissal. “He’s a fit lad, a top player and he is always easy to deal with. He has nothing to prove.”
Hutton may have his work cut out to convince West Brom and their supporters that his over-enthusiastic challenges are unintentional, so perhaps it is just as well he will be sitting out the FA Cup rematch on Saturday. “West Brom will have to improve to stop us getting to Wembley,” Sherwood said, the latest of a series of unguarded comments by a manager who wears his heart on his sleeve.
Sherwood may be inexperienced, naive even, but he brings some welcome freshness and fun to a relegation scrap that is currently being given a bad name by the antics of Gus Poyet and Steve Bruce. Neutrals are already warming to Sherwood’s style, with or without Hutton, while few would deny Villa supporters their share of freshness and fun. Goodness knows they have waited long enough.