Football: Spurs' Sherwood offer 'ludicrously low'

TOTTENHAM HAVE increased their offer for Tim Sherwood to about pounds 4m, even though Blackburn's chief executive, John Williams, insists: "They are wasting their time. We want to keep Sherwood and all our established senior players."

Tottenham, in desperate need of a physical, competitive presence in midfield, opened the bidding for the 29-year-old Sherwood at the weekend at pounds 3m. But the Blackburn manager, Roy Hodgson, whose side face Tottenham at White Hart Lane next Wednesday, said yesterday that the figure was "ludicrously low" and added: "We are not interested in selling him."

Sherwood, who still has four years left on his Ewood Park contract, says he "is happy at the club, although flattered by Tottenham's interest". Spurs also denied having made a move for the Blackburn striker, Chris Sutton.

Meanwhile, the goalkeeper Ian Walker, dropped after Spurs lost the first two games of the season and shipped six goals in the process, is seeking talks with Christian Gross.

The Spurs coach picked the Norwegian Espen Baardsen for Saturday's 1- 0 win at Everton. After the game Gross said that Walker, left out of England's squad to face Sweden in the European Championship, had taken the decision like a "true professional" but now the keeper says: "I would like a full explanation as soon as possible because it looks as though the finger is pointing at me for the two defeats, even though the manager had said how well I'd played against Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday."

The French trialist Christophe Pignol made his Spurs debut in a 2-1 friendly win over the Kuwaiti national side yesterday. The 28-year-old defender's club, Monaco, are believed to want pounds 1.5m for him.

Peter Shreeves, the Sheffield Wednesday assistant manager, has left the club by mutual consent. The former Tottenham manager was No 2 to David Pleat and Ron Atkinson, but the new man in charge at Hillsborough, Danny Wilson, has appointed Frank Barlow, the former Chesterfield manager, as his assistant.

Nottingham Forest have signed the French defender Mathieu Louis-Jean on loan for the rest of the season. Forest wanted to buy the right-back but could not reach an agreement with his club, Le Havre, over a fee. Instead, they have paid a loan fee of pounds 100,000 and have a first refusal option on him.

Dave Bassett, the Forest manager, said: "We couldn't reach an agreement over a fee but this is the next best thing."

Dietmar Hamann, the Newcastle midfielder, will be out of action for two months after suffering ligament damage during Sunday's 4-1 defeat against Liverpool. The German international, signed from Bayern Munich in the summer, limped out of the St James' Park game after only 12 minutes.