BY PHIL LEE

In print | November 1, 2007

“Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” Oh Biggie, how visionary and intelligent thou art. If only Mr. Smalls could have been at hand to observe the fulfillment of his prophecy… in club politics! His eloquent statement describes the plight of yet another football club, this time located in North, instead of West, London: Tottenham FC. Much to the cheers of the Gooner faithful, Dutch mastermind Martin Jol was the latest manager to leave his club following the “Special One” Jose Mourinho’s exit earlier in the season. The tipping point? More money, mediocre results. Ironically, however, both Mourinho and Jol have won more trophies and achieved higher winning percentages than any of their predecessors in the last two decades! Mourinho brought Chelsea the Premier League title in two consecutive years, while Martin Jol spectacularly outperformed pundit expectations by leading Tottenham to two fifth-place finishes, agonizingly short of a top four finish on one occasion.

Expectations accordingly rose following Tottenham’s success, which led the management to arm Jol with a massive transfer kit, to the tune of 40 million pounds. Jol was entrusted with a new season objective: achieve a top-four finish. There was a problematic caveat, however, as Chairman Daniel Levy and Director of Football Damien Comolli provided Jol with “administrative guidance” on the usage of the club funds! This led to the purchase of Darren Bent at 17 million pounds. Bent, mind you, is a great striker. He is not, however, worth his price tag, especially to a Tottenham side that already possessed a formidable strike force in Robbie Keane, Jermain Defoe, Dimitar Berbatov and Hossam Mido. Also, just to put the ridiculous nature of this purchase into perspective, Thierry Henry, one of the greatest footballers in history, commanded a 16 million pound transfer fee from Barcelona this past summer. Why did Jol ask the board to purchase Bent, when he already has four world-class strikers? He didn’t; Comolli conveniently made the decision for him. To make matters worse, Comolli denied Jol one of his top transfer targets, Martin Petrov of Atletico Madrid. This, in turn, upset fellow countryman Dimitar Berbatov, who reportedly asked for a move to Manchester United.

The rest of the story is rather self-explanatory: Tottenham failed to gel as a team, and produced a string of poor results, culminating in a 2-1 defeat at home to Getafe in the UEFA Cup. The Board then sacked him during the match, and Jol was made unaware of this fact until after the final whistle was blown when his nephew spread the word. Tottenham fans, during the half-time break, had sung heart-warming chants exemplifying their support for the best manager they’ve had in 20 years. To their chagrin, however, Jol was sacked.

The Tottenham management’s handling of this saga is a disgrace to football. Much like the Mourinho-Abramovich feud, Jol was not given enough autonomy to purchase his own players! How could the board have expected him to achieve a top-four finish with players selected for him? Dressing room camaraderie is of the utmost importance in producing excellent results. When Jol was forced to incorporate unanticipated players into his squad, the consequences were disastrous. Add to that the arduous task of achieving a top-four finish in a Premier League dominated by Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea, and the ridiculousness of the situation becomes apparent. The board should have either given or withdrawn all of its support for him, instead of putting Jol in limbo. Or perhaps it just wanted to oust Jol from the beginning. It is no secret that Daniel Levy has had his hidden love affair with former Sevilla coach Juande Ramos, who has recently replaced Jol as manager of Tottenham. If so, why didn’t the board fire Jol in the summer? Please, give the poor manager his dignity. He may have produced “mediocre” results with an abundance of cash, but he still is the best manager Tottenham has had in two decades. Face the facts: Jol deserves praise.

Phil is a senior. You can reach him at plee1@swarthmore.edu

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