Mark Hughes' idea of ambition at Queen's Park Rangers has been questioned by Martin Jol, the man who succeeded the Welshman at Fulham. Hughes left Fulham last summer complaining that the club failed to match his aspirations, then reiterated his desire for upward mobility when he was unveiled as manager at QPR earlier this week. But Jol believes Fulham under owner Mohamed al-Fayed has a lot more going for it than their west London neighbours at Loftus Road under Tony Fernandes. "It is not always about money if you are talking about ambition," Jol said. "In my opinion we are ambitious, but last time he was here he said maybe Fulham are not. That is is his opinion. Fulham played in a European final and that is not easy to achieve. "We feel that we are pretty ambitions but, of course, if you look at QPR and it is true what they say in the press that they have a lot of money to spend. "When I came here I knew Fulham were ambitious, so I never said to the chairman 'I want this or that'," he added. "I knew he was ambitious, because you can see from the amount he has spent. "I don't think we will buy players at 10 to 15 million, but we still have people like Moussa Dembélé and Bryan Ruiz. They could play in any team in the League. "Our ambition is to be a very good club in the Premier League and hopefully in the next couple of years what I would say nicer things, maybe win something." Jol also questioned Hughes' proclamation that he wanted to build a legacy at Loftus Road. "He is very brave to say that," Jol said. "If you look at all the clubs he has managed, it has been for two years â at the most. "I could easily say I wanted to go to Barcelona, but I came here because it is a good club and I felt that it wasn't five or 10 minutes. It was months, or maybe a year to make the decision. "QPR came up from the lower League so they are quite ambitious. It is the same as all the other clubs with [rich] owners like Malaga or Manchester City. "I think we are more steady. Of course we have been playing in the Premier League now for years so it is a different club." Fulham have rejected an offer believed to be in the region of £2.5m from Blackburn Rovers for striker Andrew Johnson. The 30-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season. On his hopes of keeping both Johnson and England striker Bobby Zamora, Jol added: "I need my strikers, otherwise I will have to play up front."
Is he fast becoming the Dave Jones of the Prem? Sour faced old sod! Just got this off of the Fulham board....... Some AJ stats. Cost = £ 10mil wages @ 40k p w x 177wks till 10th Jan 2012 = £ 7,080000 Total trans: fee & wages = seventeen million & eighty thousand pounds Divided by league goals scored, in matches played at Fulham 13 EACH GOAL SCORED HAS COST 1 MILLION THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX POUNDS AND SOME SAY I AM ALLWAYS PICKING ON A TALENTED PLAYER "C/F ARE BOUGHT TO SCORE GOALS" Surely we don't want him.
Maybe a defensive ploy by Jol if he thinks MH is going to sniff around former clubs. I would be creating a little doubt in my players heads if one of their old bosses had a few bob to spend
If Fulham is such an ambitious club why did Jol turn them down first time around, only going there after Hughes have walked out and his career in Europe had come to a grinding halt? Looks like he wants to start a feud now, bring it on.
Let's face it, QPR will never be a top 6 club, so 7th and below will probably be the limit of your ambitions. We've finished 7th and 8th in 2 out of the last 3 seasons, and been to a European final during that time. We've also spent £10m or more on a player twice in the last few years,, and we have a planning application in to increase our capacity to over 30,000. Yep, we're seriously lacking ambition guys.
Well..Quite impressing ,but thats your limit i believe. We have no limit and more money than "dodis daddy",but it just takes some time to get serious succsess. You will see...
According to Jol, no more £10m plus players. Without a doubt Fulham have performed beyond expectations recently, well done. Why do you think Jol needs to have a go at Hughes/ QPR? Why did he turn you down just after you got to a European final?
I hate to say it, but Fulham are in a far better position than we are, I mean we don't even have a statue of Michael Jackson. Need I say more?
Yeah, but the statue's crap. I mean, if you spend that much cash on a useless, unattractive lump, you expect it to at least move about a bit. Or am I thinking of Chelsea and Torres? The statue should be animatronic, at least, otherwise MAF has wasted his £4.99......
jol is hardly one to talk, at hamburg and ajax (his last two jobs) he was at both clubs for a single season, what a hypocrite no doubt this misguided interview has something to do with the crackpot al-fayed, who must be the least professional PL chairman in many a year hughes was at wales for 5 years, then blackburn for 4 years, then after 1 season he got sacked by man city
Quite cocky about Fulham, these Rangers boys... especially for a Championship club with 15k gates. The green-eyed monster methinks. Fulham are everything Rangers want to be but never will be
Ah its LondonsFinest - thanks for calling my peg selling chum, but we don't need any dusters today thanks
Think that is a bit of a smug comment because things change very quickly in football and one minute you can be a nothing club then some rich guy comes in and you buy success (Chelsea). If you had told me a few years back that Fulham would be in the Premiership I would have laughed, Wigan as well. If you had told me a Premiership club had a statue of a ‘kiddie Fiddler’ outside I would never have believed it. Fulham could one day be a top 6 club and could do well in other competitions, you just never know in football. To say a club can never be top 6 is utter rubbish and you know it.
If you were a Spurs or an Arsenal, then perhaps. But Fulham, who never achieve much, are owned by a madman and have to suffer the indignity of that awful piece of kitsch outside a ground with no crowd atmosphere. I don't think so...
In my years as an rrrrrs supporter it has never crossed my mind that I want my club to be like fulham. not even when that freak statue went up. Londonsfinest?.....ummm, no. Next?
