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Martin Jol

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Martin Jol
Personal information
Full name Maarten Cornelius Jol
Position(s) Midfielder

Maarten Cornelius "Martin" Jol (born January 16, 1956) is a Dutch former professional football player, and the former head coach of Tottenham Hotspur (2004-2007) in the English FA Premier League. Jol played over 400 games as a player, and was capped three times for the Netherlands national football team.

Playing career

Jol was born in The Hague. He started his playing career with an amateur team Berg I.L. and then was sold to the local team ADO Den Haag for 1.2 million guilder. He turned professional with Den Haag in 1973.[1] He won the 1975 Dutch Cup with the team, before transferring to Bayern Munich in 1978. He returned to the Netherlands to play for FC Twente in 1979, where he won his first cap for the Netherlands national football team in October 1980. Jol moved to England in 1982, joining West Bromwich Albion. He appeared in the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions in 1981-82. He signed for Coventry City in 1984. Jol returned to Den Haag in 1985, and won the 1985 Dutch Footballer of the Year award in the Eerste Divisie league.

At international level, Jol won 10 schoolboy caps, 20 'B' caps, 12 Under-21 caps and 12 Under-23 caps.[1] He also made three appearances for the senior team, all of which came in a 'Mini World Cup' tournament held in Uruguay in the summer of 1980.[1]

Coaching career

Jol's coaching career began in the Netherlands in 1991 when he took over at the amateur side ADO Den Haag and took them from the Third Division to the First Division. Jol then moved to Scheveningen for one season where he won the national non-league championship. Jol then spent two years at Roda JC during which time he won the Dutch cup (Roda's first trophy for 30 years). Between 1998 and 2004 Jol managed the Dutch professional team RKC Waalwijk where he saved them from relegation and was honoured as the Dutch Football Writers Coach of the Year in 2001 and Dutch Players and Coaches Coach of the Year in 2002. Manchester United spoke to Jol about becoming their assistant manager in 2003.[2]

RKC Waalwijk denied reports in June 2004 that Jol was about to become assistant manager of Tottenham Hotspur.[3] However, several days later, Jol was given the job under Tottenham's new coach Jacques Santini.[4] When Santini left the job after just over a dozen games Jol was first made caretaker manager and then later confirmed as head coach.[5] In his first season in charge Jol improved their league fortunes and scrapped the defensive nature of play that Santini had instilled. He won the FA Manager of the Month award in December 2004 and was strongly linked in the press with the then vacant managerial job at Ajax of Amsterdam, however Jol ruled out moving clubs early. Jol led Tottenham to the verge of European qualification but the season ended with a 9th place finish in the Premier League after a final day draw at home to Blackburn Rovers. This meant Spurs missed out on the UEFA Cup spot by two points. In August 2005 he signed a new three-year contract with Tottenham.[6]

The 2005–06 season marked an improvement in the league, but there was no Cup success this season with the exception of the pre-season tournament the Peace Cup which featured PSV Eindhoven, Lyon, Boca Juniors and others with Tottenham defeating Lyon in the final. During the season Tottenham never once dropped out of the top 6 places in the league and Jol eventually took Spurs to 5th in the league qualifying them for the UEFA Cup via the league for the first time since the Premier League was formed. However, the season is remembered more for narrowly missing out on a Champions League place on the final day of the season after the team were forced to play despite the majority of the squad suffering from illness.

The 2006–07 season saw Jol end Tottenham's lengthy hoodoo against Chelsea with a win, the first against them since 1990. Although away form was poor in the first half the season, a run of form consisting of just two away losses in the last five months of the season helped Tottenham to a second successive fifth place finish. Tottenham also reached the semi-finals of the League Cup and the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup.

In the summer of 2007, Tottenham signed a number of expensive players spending around £40 million. It has been reported that some of these players were signed on the request of director of football Damien Comolli and that Jol was not allowed to select players he wanted to buy, such as Martin Petrov. Expectations were that Tottenham would compete for a top four finish. After a poor start to the 2007–08 season, it was speculated that Jol would be replaced by Sevilla manager Juande Ramos, though this was denied by Tottenham's chairman Daniel Levy.[7] Nevertheless, Jol was sacked by the Tottenham board on 25 October 2007 after their 2–1 loss to Getafe in the UEFA Cup.[8] Jol confessed that he first became aware of the decision when his nephew told him of an SMS message he received saying Jol was to leave the job. Jol left with the respect and admiration of Tottenham's fans, and is the club's most successful manager in the Premier League era. Since Jol's departure from Spurs, he has been linked again with Dutch team Ajax.[9]

Jol rejected an approach from Birmingham City to discuss their managerial vacancy in November 2007[10], but was reported at the time as interested in returning to Premiership football to manage one of the clubs outside the 'top four'.[11]

Managerial stats

Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Win %
Tottenham Hotspur England November 5 2004 October 25 2007 148 67 38 43 45.27
RKC Waalwijk Netherlands 1998 2004 - - - - -
Roda JC Kerkrade Netherlands 1996 1998 - - - - -

* stats correct as of last update (27 October, 2007).

Trivia

  • In an interview in 2004, Jol told FourFourTwo that he would ideally like to spend five seasons in management with Spurs before returning back to the Netherlands to run a separate business, not football related.[need quotation to verify]
  • Martin Jol is nicknamed Tony Soprano by some fans due to "his Mafia style appearance".[1]. Many fans also refer to him as BMJ - Big Martin Jol, and The Godfather. He has also been compared to the cartoon character Superintendent Chalmers from The Simpsons.[citation needed]
  • Jol has a brother nicknamed Cock Jol, a standard contraction of the name Cornelius in Holland. The British press made some jokes at the expense of this nickname. Humorously, he has another brother called Richard, often referred to as Dick.[12]
  • In 2006-07 during a match against Blackburn Rovers, Jol was sent to the stands for arguing with the referee after the sending off of Spurs' Hossam Ghaly. Jol said afterwards in an interview on Sky TV that it was the first red card of his managerial career. Later the referee revealed that he had not sent off Jol but instead sent off Ghaly.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Martin Jol", Albion News (official match programme), vol. 73 (no. 9), Peerless Programmes, for West Bromwich Albion F.C.: pp4–5, 1981-11-14 {{citation}}: |issue= has extra text (help); |pages= has extra text (help); |volume= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Jol not in Spurs talks". BBC Sport. 2004-06-07. Retrieved 2007-08-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Spurs appoint Jol". BBC Sport. 2004-06-10. Retrieved 2007-08-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Spurs appoint Jol as new boss". BBC Sport. 2004-11-08. Retrieved 2007-08-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Jol signs new contract with Spurs". BBC Sport. 2005-08-25. Retrieved 2007-08-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Levy '100% behind Spurs boss Jol'". BBC Sport. 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2007-10-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Jol sacked as Tottenham manager". BBC Sport. 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-10-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Jol must wait for opening at Ajax". BBC. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  9. ^ "Jol rejects Birmingham approach". BBC Sport. 2007-11-20. Retrieved 2007-11-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Jol looks to return to Premiership". Timesonline. 2007-12-26. Retrieved 2008-02-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Dutchman who shuns cloggers
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