New Fulham manager Maarten Jol says he always harboured ambitions to return to English football after his spell in charge of Tottenham. please log in to view this image Five years ago today Jol was unveiled as Mark Hughes' successor at Craven Cottage, having come close to joining the London club the previous summer. Jol, who had been without a club since leaving Ajax last year, spent three years in charge of Tottenham between 2004 and 2007, and said he was delighted to be back in the Barclays Premier League. "He said: "Everybody knew I would like to come back. I said that when I left, like Arnold Schwarzenegger I will be back, and I am back." The Dutchman also revealed one of the main attractions in taking the Cottagers job was that he would be in charge of a club with a proud tradition. "I think Fulham is a traditional club, like Spurs, West Ham and all the London clubs. They gave me a good feeling and when we played here (with Spurs) we had a couple of good results, and I like the colours, black and white as well. "I could go on but Fulham are happy, I am happy, so hopefully we can keep it that way." Jol's first game in charge will be against NSI Runavik of the Faroe Islands in the first qualifying round of the Europa League on June 30, with the away leg following a week later." Fulham got into the tournament due to their fair play record, and while Jol admits the early timing is not ideal he hopes having a competitive fixture will add bite to their pre-season preparations. "This is only the second or third time Fulham have been in Europe, he said. "So I could have said let's start (training) early in June but I thought it was a bad idea. You could consider it a friendly game with a serious touch." And that final paragraph says so much about Jol's attitude to training and match preparation in general. Would things have worked out better, and indeed not merely faded into failure, if he hadn't been so complacent about training, practicing tactics and so on?
In an article some time ago levy was scathing in his summing up of Jol,,ending by saying this man nearly bankrupted Spurs with his poor acquisitions.
I still think that the first two years or so of Jol saw us playing some really good football. The last year or so, split between two seasons, were awful, but that shouldn't mean we gloss over the good things.
Agree with all of that Captain. However wouldn't you also agree that Jol's attitude to training was indifferent. And for an awful lot of his tenure, fans regularly questioned the player's fitness?
I know he was always criticised by some for his approach to training, but I never felt myself in a position to judge, to be honest. A lot of the comments came from people on this board who were calling for Jol's head after just a couple of months and who had done the same with Mark Hughes at a similar stage in his time with us, so they were easy to dismiss as perennial malcontents, to be honest.
