For Tim Sherwood, it is the fieriest of baptisms. The 44-year-old former England midfielder and Premier League-winning captain has never managed a professional team. Now he takes charge of Tottenham Hotspur, one of England's top five clubs over the past four seasons, in a grudge Capital One Cup quarter-final against West Ham United at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night.

Tottenham are resolved to avenge the 3-0 home defeat they suffered to West Ham in the Premier League on 6 October, a result that saw the visiting manager, Sam Allardyce, delight in having his tummy tickled over his tactical acumen and André Villas-Boas begin to feel the unravelling of his White Hart Lane tenure. The end came on Monday morning, after the previous day's 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool.

Revenge, though, is merely a part of the plot. Sherwood has been confirmed as Villas-Boas's interim successor but only while the chairman Daniel Levy and the sporting director Franco Baldini cast the net for a bigger name to take on the job in the longer-term.

No one can say how long that process will take and, by extension, how long Sherwood will enjoy his elevation. Several candidates have been discussed but there would be difficulties in appointing one of them mid-season. Frank de Boer, for example, who has his admirers in the Tottenham boardroom, would be loth to leave Ajax as they chase a fourth consecutive Eredivisie title.

The impression given is that the club would love Sherwood to do well and so buy them time; ideally, until the summer, when managers might be more receptive to an approach and a new challenge. There are no certainties and, for the players, this is a curious time.

When Villas-Boas told them before training on Monday that he had become the eighth Tottenham manager to be sacked by Levy since 2001, they wanted to know where the club was going; what would be the permanent solution. Players are a resilient breed, capable of knuckling down in a variety of circumstances, and the smart money would be on Tottenham bouncing back with a performance against West Ham. Yet there is concern in the dressing room over what might happen next.

There are two readings to Sherwood's promotion. The first is underpinned by joined-up-thinking and no little romance. Having been brought into the first-team coaching set-up on a part-time basis by the former manager Harry Redknapp in October 2008, he has worked to establish himself and to obtain his coaching badges – he completed his Uefa A and B licenses under the auspices of the Football Association of Wales.

Here is a former Tottenham captain who has returned to graft his way through the ranks. He is gifted and extremely well regarded by the hierarchy. When Blackburn Rovers wanted to appoint him as their manager in October 2012, Levy blocked the approach. Sherwood was even under consideration to become Tottenham's sporting director before Levy turned to Baldini last summer.

He has a keen eye for a player and his opinion is respected in professional circles. Redknapp, who is now at Queens Park Rangers, has taken Andros Townsend and Tom Carroll on loan from Tottenham on Sherwood's recommendation. Redknapp had appointed him, together with Les Ferdinand, another former Tottenham player, because he wanted to give opportunity to young English coaches. It is often said that homegrown talent is overlooked for the top Premier League posts and so Tottenham's faith has to be commendable.

The alternative reading to the drafting in of Sherwood as the club's manager takes in words like "gamble" and asks searching questions. Given his lack of a track record, how many leading players would want to sign for him during the January transfer window? Given his elevation from the youth set-up, how many of the first-team squad can truly look at him and see their boss? Many of the younger ones will not remember his playing days, when he lifted the Premier League trophy with Blackburn in 1995 and won three England caps.

Sherwood must get results, find an attractive style of play, appease Baldini by getting more out of the club's expensive summer signings and restore morale in general. All this, as he operates on a game-to-game basis.

Everybody at Tottenham wanted Villas-Boas to succeed, and there was plenty to like about his debut season, when the players bought into his carefully-structured training sessions and scientific approach. This season has been a disappointment, as he struggled to integrate new signings and ended up frustrating many of the players.

Some were sad to see him go and believed there was still something in him for Tottenham, particularly if he could have made tweaks to his methods. Others were not so sure.

His treatment of Emmanuel Adebayor left the Togolese and his team-mates bewildered. Adebayor had travelled to Hong Kong with the squad in pre-season only to learn of the death of his brother and, unsurprisingly, allowed it to affect his attitude. When Villas-Boas was made aware of the situation, he gave his blessing to the club's decision to grant the striker compassionate leave but when Adebayor returned to work, he was sent to train with the reserves.

Villas-Boas felt that Adebayor's fitness, which was behind the other first-team players, who had moved on to a different programme, would be better improved with the reserves. There was logic to the theory yet little human feeling.

Thereafter, when Adebayor returned to the first-team group, it felt to him as though Villas-Boas was always looking for a reason not to play him, despite the clamour from Baldini and sections of the squad for the manager to switch to two up front. Adebayor, who has appeared only once this season – as a substitute in the 6-0 defeat at Manchester City – is among the squad's best-paid players. Levy came to have a problem with that.

Villas-Boas was not afraid to chop and change players, which blurred the line between healthy competition and unease. Christian Eriksen was dropped after his poor performance against West Ham; Jermain Defoe was unhappy to be left out for Liverpool after two decent Premier League starts; Aaron Lennon was mystified to be substituted against Manchester United after running Patrice Evra ragged.

The gripes went on. Jan Vertonghen, the centre-half, is known as 'Superman' at the training ground after a goal celebration in which he looked ready to rip open the front of his shirt. "Hey, Superman," his team-mates have teased. "How's it going at left-back?" Vertonghen has not been amused. Younès Kaboul, Mousa Dembélé, Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli and Gylfi Sigurdsson have wondered about their place in the scheme of things.

Sherwood took training on Tuesday and has attempted to "get a few messages across in a short space of time". He will miss the injured Vertonghen, Sandro and Kaboul against West Ham, plus the suspended Michael Dawson and Paulinho. Welcome to the mad house.