The Case FOR Martin Jol

Typical! After one of our most enjoyable, exciting run of games in recent history when we go out of the UEFA Cup with a side bereft of defenders to the La Liga title contenders and a couple of bent / retarded referees immediately the sceptics get on Jol's back and the knives come out.

14th April 2007 - The Case Against Martin Jol http://www.topspurs.com/newsnow/thfccol210407.htm

I have no doubt, at this point and on the evidence shown so far, that Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are better quality coaches / managers than Jol but that is it, no others, including "The Special One". Poor Chris Briggs gets his knickers in a twist without consulting the hard facts or, alternatively, just plain getting them wrong. He deals with 3 areas: transfer policy, key games and overall improvement.

"We have spent more money than anyone bar Chelsea and Man Utd and a similar amount to Liverpool" and "Everton and Bolton, the teams immediately above us have spent a fraction of what we have over the past 3 years and yet are still ahead of us" are patently untrue. Our net spend is GBP4 million* over the last two seasons. Great business done by Jol and Comolli. Losing Carrick was a blow to the side that took half a season to recover from but recover we have despite having our talismanic defender and commander out of play.

Martin Jol's points record speaks for itself if you want to look at overall improvement and performance. Here are the points- per- game figures for before the Wigan game on Sunday.

2001: 1.29 2002: 1.32 2003: 1.32 2004: 1.18 2005: 1.37 Jol gets appointed after (was it 5?.. 8?) useless games 2006: 1.71 2007: 1.50

Jol has done more with less than any manager since 2001.

The only place Mr. Briggs has a point is in the team's inability to defend a lead. I am an armchair pundit myself and realise that Jol has had to learn that the tactics of defending a lead from the box may work on the continent but not so often in the Premiership. Jol has, recently, stopped withdrawing the attacking end of our team early except when they need to be rested and realised that with the particular team he has at his disposal the best form of defence is, indeed, attack. It has worked well.

The only things this team really still lacks are a co-ordinated defence (which will return with Ledley King) and belief that they can beat absolutely anybody which killed them in the first part of the UEFA quarter final against the defending Champions and the team sitting second in La Liga.

I understand the scepticism of some fans after all the false promises and dawns of the past. But the facts speak for themselves. Shame on you Mr. Briggs. The future is bright, the future is Lilywhite.



*ref: http://spurs.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/spurs-net-transfer-spend-gbp-4m-over-2-seasons/

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