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Tim Sherwood has ramped up his row with Benfica coach Jorge Jesus ahead of their Thursday night’s Europa League showdown, writes Darren Lewis in Lisbon.

Sherwood hit out hours after his opposite number refused to apologise for mocking him during the first leg of this last 16 tie.

Sparks flew at White Hart Lane last Thursday when Jesus held up three fingers to the delirious away fans to celebrate defender Luisao scoring the final goal in the Portuguese side's 3-1 victory.

And the Spurs boss said: “I’ve got respect for the football club and I’ve got respect for his players. I have got no respect for the man.”

Angry Sherwood clashed with the Benfica boss on the touchline and later accused him of having “no class”.

But Jesus refused to apologise at his Wednesday press conference, saying: “I didn’t disrespect the coach. I didn’t make any gesture to Tim Sherwood when I showed my three fingers.”

Sherwood, who refused to shake hands at the end of last week’s first leg, insisted he would try to rise above the incident this time and try to make peace.

He said “The club is a huge club and we’ve had a lot of emails from Benfica fans apologising for their manager’s behaviour. At the end of the day, I will shake his hand, because they are a giant of a club.”

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Sherwood also put himself on collision course yet again with technical director Franco Baldini by insisting he DIDN'T recommend sought-after Dnipro winger Yehven Konoplyanka to chairman Daniel Levy - despite the Ukrainian club’s president revealing this week that the two clubs are in talks.

Baldini was behind the summer's £30million acquisition of Roma's Erik Lamela, who has been a big disappointment.

Sherwood said: “Nobody else will come in here unless I sanction it. You can’t work any other way.

"The manager has got to work with the players so, unless he gets the players he wants, it’s always going to be an uphill task. He will always have the excuse of, ‘Well, they’re not my players’.”

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Asked if he had put Konoplyanka’s name to Levy, Sherwood added: “Not at the moment.”

He went on: “He has shown some nice touches, but there are a lot of players around with nice touches. I think we have to make sure we see a lot more of these guys before they come in, not just the highlights because we’ve got to make sure we do our recruitment job on them.

“I’m sure it’s been thorough. Someone else has made those decisions in the past. I’ve not been privy to it.

"I know the type of players I want to improve the group and take it forward to next season."

Sherwood has also hit out at Holland coach Louis van Gaal after the Dutchman continued his aggressive pursuit of a Premier League job by telling German newspaper Bild that he wants to win the English title.

Spurs are known to have spoken to Van Gaal before Sherwood and the former Blackburn midfielder said: "He's obviously destined to manage in England.

"He's got a good track record and he's a good manager. I'm sure he'll get his opportunity: he's been shouting loud enough for it."