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| 'Trust Backs Martin Jol' posted by THST on 22/08/2007 |
Trust Backs Martin Jol
The Trust has been dismayed by the frenzy of media interest in Martin Jol’s role as Tottenham manager in the last few days. We do not feel it is in the club’s best interests for the manager’s position to be undermined so early in what promises to be another season of progress. Martin should be left to get on with the job that has seen THFC reach its highest ever Premiership position in each of the two full seasons he has been in charge.
Martin Jol has made mistakes as a manager – football is a game of opinions and all managers make mistakes – but overall we believe he has taken the club forward. There have been poor runs during his tenure, but to judge him on the first couple of results of a new season, especially with so many key players out injured, is ridiculous. If the club believes there are more deep seated issues, these should have been addressed in the close season.
Four years ago Glenn Hoddle was allowed to bring in new players at not insignificant cost only to be sacked after six games, following which we spent the whole season in limbo under David Pleat’s ‘caretaker’ management as the saga of trying to identify a long term successor was played out in the media. When Jacques Santini did finally arrive, his subsequent rapid departure gave us yet another transitional season. Surely the club has learnt from these mistakes?
Much has been made of the £40 million invested in this transfer window (so far) to give Martin, in the chairman’s words, “the best squad of players this Club has had for over 20 years”. We believe Martin now needs the opportunity to mould those players into a team that can challenge for the honours we aspire to, and the overwhelming majority of supporters back him to do that. Speculation about his position as manager fuelled by alleged meetings with potential successors is not conducive to giving Martin that opportunity and the club needs to ensure the speculation stops.
Tottenham supporters are often portrayed as fickle: in fact we are incredibly loyal to our club but, notwithstanding high expectations, we are also pragmatic. We know the team has only recently – under Martin Jol – reached anything like an acceptable level in the Premiership and we also know the so-called ‘top four’ will be a hard target to crack. At least two of the clubs we aspire to match and surpass – those with long term Premiership success – have achieved that success with equally long-term stability of management.
Everyone at the club should get fully behind Martin Jol and back him all the way to achieve greater success this season.
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