Sherwood inherited Holtby at Tottenham Hotspur four and a half years ago.
Tim Sherwood has admitted that he could not wait to get rid of Lewis Holtby during his time as Tottenham Hotspur head coach.
Sherwood inherited Holtby after being appointed as successor to Andre Villas Boas at Tottenham in December 2013.
And the 49-year-old did not have to wait long before getting his wish, sanctioning the midfielder’s loan move to Fulham the following month.
Now a Hamburg player, Holtby scored in the Red Shorts’ 3-1 win at Wolfsburg on Saturday afternoon, which caught the attention of Sherwood, who was a guest on BT Sport’s Score show.
“(He managed Holtby) for a short while, yeah – I couldn’t wait to get rid of him,” said Sherwood, himself a former Tottenham midfielder.
“To be fair he’s a good lad, an industrious midfield player – probably not at Tottenham’s level for where they want to be.
“He was a favourite for the crowd – really energetic, got about, waved his fists around, tried to kid them on as much as he could.”
Although Sherwood was not around by the time Holtby returned to White Hart Lane that summer, his opinion was seemingly shared by replacement, Mauricio Pochettino, who loaned the 27-year-old to Hamburg just months after his appointment.
And Holtby – who has an English father but chose to represent Germany, the country of his birth, at international level – signed permanently with the relegation threatened side in 2015.
Is Sherwood’s assessment of the former Tottenham man fair?