An ex-colleague of mine once told me that people only do impersonations of you if they like you. He told me that after my then MD did an impression of me, when telling a funny anecdote. I do an impression of Martin Jol. Everybody knows that.
I like Martin Jol. Everybody likes Martin Jol. He was a very popular figure in English football in his time at Tottenham manager, an unusual period when non-Spurs fans would often mention in passing how much they liked our manager. And most people that met him have a good story to tell, be it the family of a young player I know that Spurs tried to sign in 2007 or my own group of football friends who met him in Braga a few weeks earlier when we were staying at the neighbouring hotel. Once during Jol’s tenure, I happened to be eating in a restaurant in central London, got talking the owner, and it somehow came out in conversation I was a Spurs fan. (I can’t reveal the interrogation techniques used to get me to volunteer that piece of information.) The owner told me Jol had eaten there a few times and had given him tickets for his kids to come to the training ground. Most satisfyingly for me, the restaurant owner, a West Ham fan, told me that Jol said he hated his club, and would never forgive them for their fans singing “Arsenal” on that infamous final day of the season in 2006.
Jol was a good manager for Tottenham, and they way he was treated publicly by the club in his last few months, culminating with his sacking, was appalling. Reading Levy’s vote of confidence (effectively an undermining vote of no confidence) a few weeks earlier on Sky Sports News graphics, was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen in a pub in London on a midweek evening, and that’s saying something. But tweets from numerous Spurs fans yesterday wishing that Jol was replacing Harry Redknapp now, seem to be based on sentiment rather than logic, and there is a tendency to look back in the past on his managerial spell through a rose tinted mist.
Similar to Redknapp, Jol is a manger who gives journalists good copy and makes people laugh. The footage of him at a Tottenham supporters meeting retelling of his confrontation with Mark Clattenburg after he didn’t give Pedro Mendes’ “goal” is particularly funny. Redknapp produces those moments on a regular basis, but while Jol never committed the crime of treating Spurs fans with disdain, both his ego and negativity were problems that led to his downfall.
It is well known that Jol seriously considered jumping ship for more money to Newcastle, but it is often forgotten how he openly coveted the Chelsea job while Frank Arnesen was the Director of Football there, even saying in a Guardian interview the day before Spurs played Chelsea in the 6th round of the FA Cup how he wanted to win a title in two or three years, and dismissing Tottenham’s chance of even challenging, talking about a satisfactory top six finish.
That Chelsea game was just three days after Braga, and followed a spell where Spurs had a good run of wins, after a period when Jol himself was under pressure. There had been rumours Levy wanted to bring Redknapp in then to replace Jol, and when Spurs won 4-0 away at Fulham in the 5th round of the FA Cup, the relief to Jol was clear as he left the field ecstatic as he walked past the away end. He blamed the poor slump up until mid-February, and that game at Fulham, on the absence of Jenas and Tanio, but it was quickly forgotten with the good run that followed, which included a great Berbatov performance at home to Bolton when Spurs had ten men (after Keane got two early goals before being sent-off), the memorable 4-3 win at West Ham, and wins away at Everton and Braga.
The cup-tie at Chelsea that followed highlighted both the good and bad sides of Jol’s football decision making; the previous summer during the World Cup he wrote an excellent column for The Times, showing a great tactical understanding, which he rarely seemed to put into practice at Tottenham, almost with a fear of losing. One of the things he said during his World Cup columns was how Aaron Lennon was capable of playing in the hole, behind two strikers in a diamond formation. Against Chelsea that day, he played Lennon there, and as he predicted, Chelsea couldn’t cope. Spurs went 3-1 up early on, and the atmosphere in the away end on a hot day at Stamford Bridge, just two days after we had returned from Braga, was fun in the sun.
We missed a great chance to go 4-1 up at the start of the second-half, and an opportunity to score four goals for the fourth consecutive Sunday, and also a chance to go on and get our own 6-1 win. As the game went on, Jol’s negativity got the better off him. He took off Berbatov (who reportedly only played because Levy insisted on it) and Spurs dropped deeper and deeper, eventually conceding a last minute equalizer, and narrowly avoiding defeat in a game that should have been wrapped up.
Jol understands the principles of good football, and his use of Carrick to dictate the pace of the game transformed the side that was struggling under Santini, to a side that was comfortably one of the best four teams in the league the following season, despite dropping down a place on the last day. Towards the end of that season we out played Arsenal in the last North London Derby at Highbury, and had we won that by four or five clear goals, it would have been a true reflection of the game. I was too busy celebrating Robbie Keane’s goal in the Clock End to see Jol’s confrontation with Wenger until I left the ground, but what stood out during watching many replays of that goal, was Jol’s firm instructions to “Play. Play. Play.” Simple instructions, but the players rightly listened, and when Spurs did play under Jol, we were a very good team.
Six times in Jol’s that season we lost a decisive late goal, which cost us in both cup competitions, as well as of course Champions League qualification. It was no coincidence that when those goals were conceded, Edgar Davids was off the pitch – he was a great influence on that side, and an excellent signing. With a Director of Football it wasn’t always clear who made which signings – it is safe to assume Arnesen got in Carrick, Comolli got in Berbatov, Kevin Prince-Boteang, Beniot Assou-Ekottto and Darren Bent, but Davids was probably Jol’s choice, and a very good one at that.
That Davids was taken off in games was understandable, but it was Jol’s general use of substitutes that was worrying. He liked the idea of having a big striker upfront, even when Keane and Defoe seemed to be the best pairing before Berbatov arrived. And it wasn’t until he fell out with Mido towards the end of 2005-06, that he gave them regular starts together. For someone who has tactical knowledge, Jol seemed reluctant to change things during a game, and would often fall back on the old Dutch trait of having a big man in the box at the end of the game.
By the time of the 2007-08 season expectation was high, particularly from the chairman who invested heavily in the team, and the first team had financial backing no other Spurs manager had had for years. That all the players weren’t Jol’s signings was an issue and team selection started to become a problem. Bent was bought in case Berbatov left, Jol’s treatment of Defoe was strange, particularly if he wasn’t acting on instruction on the club because Defoe wasn’t signing a new contract, and he didn’t have his old favourites to rely on (he was still be bemoaning the big loss of Carrick after a year) and Jenas flattered to deceive (him if no-one else).
The poor start, coupled with perceptions of Jol’s ego behind the scenes caused the club to look elsewhere. And Jol can’t complain about the club keeping their options open, when it is a practice he not only did himself while Spurs manager, but one he has continued to do; when he was at Hamburg, he publicly courted Sunderland, and when he left from Ajax it was hours after Newcastle had sacked his former right-hand man, and true Tottenham legend, Chris Hughton. (Had Jol stepped in Hughton’s shoes then, my “I love Martin Jol” t-shirt may never have seen the light of day again, and the memory of singing “Martin Jol’s Blue & White Army” in Leverkusen might have been tarnished).
When Jol became Tottenham Manager, he was the right man, at the right time. Even after a couple of early defeats in his first games in charge, there was a collective confidence in him, and we went on to score five goals three times that season, as well go on a five match winning run in the League culminating with a memorable win at Carrow Road on Boxing Day. The following season, we were solid as a team, playing good football, with King and Dawson masterful, Carrick pulling the strings, and Lennon a constant threat. And in his final full season, with Berbatov added, we scored goals in all competitions, but were left to wonder how well we might have done had Carrick stayed, and King had been fit (things we sometimes still wonder now).
The handling of his departure was awful, and unbefitting of this great club, but Spurs have moved on now, past the limited ambitions, and seemingly past the internal managerial in-fighting. Jol was replaced for a reason. He is not the right man now, but that doesn’t mean to say, if his mind-set has changed, he may not be sometime in the future, if a vacancy naturally opens itself up. But no man is bigger than the club, and we at Tottenham set our sights high. At times Jol forgot that.
MG
MG
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