Martin Jol loses job after Juande Ramos says yes to Tottenham

[K.Dub]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/tottenham/article2741595.ece

Martin Jol’s reign as Tottenham Hotspur manager ended last night. An announcement confirming his departure is expected this morning and The Times has learnt that Juande Ramos, the Seville coach, has accepted the job but may not be in place until the start of next season.

Tottenham are putting heavy pressure on the Spaniard to move to White Hart Lane sooner, but Clive Allen, the reserve-team coach, will be in charge when Blackburn Rovers visit for the Barclays Premier League match on Sunday. It is also believed that Gustavo Poyet, the former Tottenham and Uruguay player who is at present No 2 to Dennis Wise at Leeds United, has been approached to become Ramos’s assistant.

Jol selected his final team last night and his tenure ended in disappointing fashion, a 2-1 defeat at home to Getafe, of Spain, in the Uefa Cup. The Dutchman appeared buoyant as he left the tunnel for the dugout before kick-off and gave no hint of the drama that was unfolding. But as rumours circulated around the ground and Ladbrokes, the bookmaker, stopped taking bets on Ramos to become the next permanent manager, the Tottenham fans gave Jol a standing ovation and chanted his name.

Even by Tottenham’s standards — four permanent managers in little more than six years — the latest episode has been chaotic. Jol’s position has been untenable since Tottenham officials made an embarrassingly public approach for Ramos in August.

Ramos said that he will remain at Seville until the end of his contract in the summer, but Tottenham have been pursuing him since. They are likely to have offered him considerably more than the £2 million a season that Jol has been earning.

Allen is expected to take temporary charge until Ramos arrives. The Spaniard will be charged with turning around Tottenham’s fortunes, which at present have them in the relegation zone, with expectations of challenging for a place in the Champions League crushed by a series of poor performances.

Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, made it plain to Jol that only qualification for the Europe’s biggest club competition would be good enough for him to keep his job, given that more than £35 million has been invested in players this summer. Jol has led Tottenham to fifth place for the past two seasons, but a fractious relationship with some players and the board has left him isolated.

He became embroiled in a battle with Levy and Damien Comolli, the sporting director, in the summer — and lost. Paul Kemsley, the Tottenham vice-chairman at the time, wanted to replace Jol with with Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, in the summer, but was overruled.

Jol, who has a little less than three years to run on his contract, agreed a £4 million compensation package in August, as revealed by The Times. The Dutchman, who took over at White Hart Lane when Jacques Santini left the club almost three years ago, has been contacted about his interest in taking charge of Holland after the European Championship finals.

[KURUPTION-81]

I feel sorry for jol he really improved spurs as a side, nearly got them into the champions league the other year and was unlucky in the uefa cup last year.

His handling of defoe hasnt been great and they have started badly but i feel a lot of the responsibility lies with the players. It seems only robbie keane has faced the challenge and tried to turn spurs season round.

I would have liked to have seen jol keep his job.

[Antonio_]

As an Arsenal fan, i pay respect for Jol. The Premier looses another good coach after Mou'.

[bez]

Shame really. Just that Ramos is going to come in, ship players out, bring players in, just a shame really. This could make or break Tottenham now.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

To be honest I'm glad he's gone. The amazing form of Berbatov and Keane in the second half of last season masked a lot of the problems in the side, which have carried over into this season without being sorted out by the management. We'd gone as far as we could under Jol and I feel we needed someone else to come in to take us to the next level.

Ramos would be a great appointment, with all signs pointing to him agreeing a deal to take over in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully he'll ship out a lot of the dead weight and sort out the issues that have blighted us so far this season. If Ramos comes soon I see no reason why we can't turn this season round and at least challenge for a top six finish.

[Mac 10 †]

Martin Jol for Celtic.

[KURUPTION-81]

Martin Jol for Celtic.

still not liking strachan ?

[Mac 10 †]

Martin Jol for Celtic.

still not liking strachan ?

Nope.

This year will be the 1st year where we might actually receive a decent challenge for the SPL title.

The last 2 have been laughably easy.

In saying that Rangers league form ain't that great, they lost again at the weekend.

Strachan has done alright in signing players like Nakamura, Donati & Boruc. But the fact that he hasn't strengthened our defence in 3 years is horrific.

I think he wants to build a team which is always capable of scoring goals so even if you concede we will still win.

The problem is games such as against Rangers and Benfica, we concede (as we almost always do) but at the same time we aren't scoring. That is a problem.

I will Strachan a fair chance, but he really needs to smarten up tactically sometimes.

[No Compute]

United are winning the SPL this season, no bother.