- Oct 4, 2004
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I think he is the best and most respected football hack Henry Winter and here is his take, spot on. :clap:
Daniel Levy lacks Martin Jol's class
By Henry Winter
Last Updated: 1:57am BST 27/10/2007
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No class: that's Daniel Levy for you. No centre-halves: that's Martin Jol for you. This double whammy combined to throw Tottenham's season into disarray. If Ledley King had been fit, and Jol been allowed to recruit a commanding stopper, then Spurs would not have leaked goals from St James' Park to White Hart Lane – and that was just this week.
Even when Spurs fans knew their manager was history, early on during Thursday night's Uefa Cup tie with Getafe, they kept chanting his name.
Jol knew his fate, knew that the moment Levy flirted with Sevilla's Juande Ramos that a good man working had become a dead man walking. Somehow, Jol retained his dignity. Levy would not recognise it but Jol's decorum under pressure is real class.
As he moves his pieces around a lilywhite-and-black chess-board, the Spurs chairman should understand one reality: Jol was perfect for the club, being an average coach with a soul and a commitment to attacking football. The Dutchman was not in the league of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger or Rafa Benitez but then neither are Tottenham in the same realm as Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool. Fact.
Levy, whose credibility has been shredded over his handling of Jol's exit, has delusions of grandeur if he believes Spurs have Champions League potential. Jol took Spurs to the boundaries of their legitimate ambition, to fifth place (twice). After the sterility of some of his Levy-appointed predecessors, Jol made Spurs watchable and respected again.
Following time-honoured fashion, the denigrating of the departed will now begin. Jol will be depicted as having lost the players. Dimitar Berbatov and Jermain Defoe were clearly unhappy and at odds with the manager. No doubt. But no wonder. Levy had undermined Jol so badly that any minor football-related tensions were allowed to spread like poison ivy.
Anyone with any empathy for the erstwhile glory, glory institution that was Spurs, a club with the best atmosphere in the Premier League (outside of Fratton Park), will wish Ramos and Gus Poyet well. A word of advice to the new management: keep your centre-halves fit and your eyes on a fickle chairman.
www.telegraph.co.uk/winter
Lots more other good stories in there today also worth a read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?menuId=35&menuItemId=-1&view=SUMMARY&grid=F2&targetRule=
Daniel Levy lacks Martin Jol's class
By Henry Winter
Last Updated: 1:57am BST 27/10/2007
No class: that's Daniel Levy for you. No centre-halves: that's Martin Jol for you. This double whammy combined to throw Tottenham's season into disarray. If Ledley King had been fit, and Jol been allowed to recruit a commanding stopper, then Spurs would not have leaked goals from St James' Park to White Hart Lane – and that was just this week.
Even when Spurs fans knew their manager was history, early on during Thursday night's Uefa Cup tie with Getafe, they kept chanting his name.
Jol knew his fate, knew that the moment Levy flirted with Sevilla's Juande Ramos that a good man working had become a dead man walking. Somehow, Jol retained his dignity. Levy would not recognise it but Jol's decorum under pressure is real class.
As he moves his pieces around a lilywhite-and-black chess-board, the Spurs chairman should understand one reality: Jol was perfect for the club, being an average coach with a soul and a commitment to attacking football. The Dutchman was not in the league of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger or Rafa Benitez but then neither are Tottenham in the same realm as Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool. Fact.
Levy, whose credibility has been shredded over his handling of Jol's exit, has delusions of grandeur if he believes Spurs have Champions League potential. Jol took Spurs to the boundaries of their legitimate ambition, to fifth place (twice). After the sterility of some of his Levy-appointed predecessors, Jol made Spurs watchable and respected again.
Following time-honoured fashion, the denigrating of the departed will now begin. Jol will be depicted as having lost the players. Dimitar Berbatov and Jermain Defoe were clearly unhappy and at odds with the manager. No doubt. But no wonder. Levy had undermined Jol so badly that any minor football-related tensions were allowed to spread like poison ivy.
Anyone with any empathy for the erstwhile glory, glory institution that was Spurs, a club with the best atmosphere in the Premier League (outside of Fratton Park), will wish Ramos and Gus Poyet well. A word of advice to the new management: keep your centre-halves fit and your eyes on a fickle chairman.
www.telegraph.co.uk/winter
Lots more other good stories in there today also worth a read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?menuId=35&menuItemId=-1&view=SUMMARY&grid=F2&targetRule=