Published: 23 January, 2014

TIM Sherwood believes Spurs have to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, otherwise his efforts might not be good enough to satisfy the chairman.

Spurs have a tremendous record under Sherwood, netting five wins and a draw over six league games since he replaced Andre Villas-Boas at the helm in December.

Sunday’s 3-1 victory away at Swansea keeps Tottenham fifth in the table, level on points with fourth-placed Liverpool.

But Sherwood is adamant that his side still needs to improve if they are to book a place in Europe’s premier club competition next term. “If the season was to end tomorrow the chairman wouldn’t be too happy because we’re fifth,” he said. “The final league position has to meet the expecta­tions of the club other­wise it’s ‘Goodbye Charlie’. The club need to finish in fourth place. Any­thing other than that is going to be a disappointment. Realis­tic­ally we should be in and amongst it. But it ain’t easy, is it?”

Sherwood admitted that his cause isn’t being helped by the consistency that Tottenham’s top four rivals are showing.

“No one seems to be giving any leeway,” he added. “I keep looking at results thinking ‘surely they’re going to drop points here today, and they don’t.

They were probably looking at us thinking ‘they might slip up at Swansea’, so the good thing is we’re not giving anything away either.”