Tim Sherwood’s gone with the Brendan Rodgers defence for his failure at Aston Villa

If we were cynical we might suggest that the timing of these comments was a ploy to distract from Remi Garde's first game as Aston Villa manager this afternoon.

But we're too innocent to join dots like that so we'll just say that Tim Sherwood has been so distraught since losing his job that he didn't know what he was saying on BeIN sports on the day Villa play Manchester City at Villa Park. The ex-Tottenham boss is unemployed after being sacked last month having left Villa at the foot of the Premier League table, and he's partly blamed the fact that players were brought into the club that he was not always happy with for his departure

"There was a committee, which I was part of — so I had a say in the players I wanted to bring into the football club.

“We ended up signing 12 players, although there were a lot more players given to the committee than 12, and we ended up with what we ended up with.

“I believe that those players in time will be good players for the football club, but when you bring in a lot of players from other countries that have not played and experienced the Premier League before, the competitive nature of it, it is going to take time.

Sherwood did guide his team to the FA Cup final last term, but an horrendous start to this campaign saw him dumped and Garde installed as his successor this week. And fans seem pretty happy with what they have seen so far today https://twitter.com/FloppyChicken92/status/663359178971459584 https://twitter.com/Callum_Novelli/status/663353203912810496 https://twitter.com/Jaydogg_3001/status/663360335882113024 https://twitter.com/The_Wonderball/status/663361418155171841 https://twitter.com/Freddie_Farrell/status/663360817102987264