English Premier League: Martin Jol A Favorite To Take Over At Fulham
The former Tottenham boss, Martin Jol is a favorite to take up the manager’s job at Fulham. Fulham lost their previous manager Roy Hodgson, to Liverpool as the Englishman took over at Liverpool earlier on in the summer.
Hodgson did remarkably well with Fulham as he took them to the Europa League final which the London club lost eventually to the Spanish club Athletico Madrid. Hodgson also maintained a top half premier league spot for Fulham and even managed to defeat the reigning English champions of 2008-2009 season, Manchester United, by a score line of three goals to nil at craven cottage.
Martin Jol is currently at the Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam. Jol took them to a second placed finish in the Dutch football league and has helped the club develop recent World Cup stars such as Van Der Weil, Luis Suarez and Maarten Stekelenburg. Ajax Amsterdam is a renowned for developing young stars through its youth academy. Previously, Ajax has blessed football with talents such as Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Johann Cruyff and Clarence Seedorf.
However, unfortunately because of Dutch league’s lower financial appeal than the Spanish and English leagues, Ajax have had to sell their superstars to higher bidders in other more commercially active European leagues. Ajax, therefore has been termed as a selling club.
Arnold Muhren, who was part of Ajax’s youth setup under Martin Jol in the 2009-2010 season lately come out and told the press that, Martin Jol is quite unhappy at Ajax because of the clubs selling attitude. Recently at the World Cup, Luis Suarez played brilliantly for the Uruguayan national team. Suarez has turned into a lethal goal poacher under Martin Jol at Ajax and scored around 35 goals last season.
Other Ajax stars include the young Dutch right back, Van Der Weil who played in the FIFA 2010 World Cup final for Netherlands. Van Der Weil’s team mate Maarten Stekelenburg also plays at Ajax and has been refined into a fine goalkeeper for Ajax under Jol’s guidance.
Muhren said that, Martin Jol wants to sign another striker at Ajax but the club officials have told him that they will not give him any transfer money unless he agrees to sell some of the club’s current stars. Muhren also added that, Jol’s negotiations with Fulham F.C have already begun.
Ex-Ajax youth coach went onto say that, Jol might be thinking that Fulham is much more of an opportunity for him because they made the Europa league final last season. He also stated that, if the Dutchman thinks he does not possess the squad at Ajax to challenge other teams for the title in the Dutch league, then he might opt for Fulham.
Commenting on Martin Jol’s capabilities as a manager, Muhren said that Jol did brilliantly at Spurs and at Hamburg as well. He also said that Martin Jol has a good reputation in Holland because he just lost the league title by just one point in the 2009-2010 season.
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