'Best of the rest' bides his time

Despite his stated commitment to the club, Martin Jol admits he is unlikely to win titles at Tottenham, writes Matt Scott

Martin Jol had not been at Tottenham Hotspur for long but already he could see the writing on the wall. He had joined the underachieving north London club as the "first assistant to the head coach" - whatever that was supposed to mean - and it quickly became clear that the role was even more spurious than the job title.

Frank Arnesen, the sporting director, had lured Jol with the promise of responsibility for all training-ground matters as lieutenant to Jacques Santini, the head coach. But when the former France manager brought in Dominique Cuperly from his former club Lyon, Jol realised he was not even first among equals.

Such was the muddle Jol walked into Arnesen's smart, spartan office at Spurs' training ground and told him he would be gone by the season's midway point.

"I said I would stay until January," said Jol. "I was a manager myself, always. And I had to work. I would do things on the pitch and Jacques was going to be in the office. But he was on the pitch as well."

It is amazing now to think, with Spurs having been League Cup semi-finalists this season, in the FA Cup quarter-final tomorrow and with a good chance of reaching the same stage of the Uefa Cup on Wednesday night, how close they came to losing the man who has revived them. It was Arnesen, now at tomorrow's opponents, Chelsea, who made him reconsider.

Arnesen had wanted to appoint Jol as PSV Eindhoven's manager when he was technical director there, and had been his champion during the summer recruitment process at Spurs. Though they had never met before their shared time at Tottenham, the pair established a bond that split the club's French and Dutch-Danish managerial factions.

Results reflected the club's tangled structure until, on fireworks night in 2004, Santini quit for "personal reasons". At the club's agm the following Monday it was announced Santini would be replaced by the former Dutch coach of the year.

Jol had arrived. Even from across the North Sea at RKC Waalwijk Jol had identified Tottenham as a slumbering spirit. And so he spent time on the Spurs sidelines seeing what improvements he might make.

"I wanted to look at how the system worked," said Jol, and he knew from experience that his club's structure could create friction. "It could be an impossible situation, but not if you are friends. First you want to be responsible for your own mistakes. With Frank it was different.

"If you've got someone who is in the pecking order and plays your boss, I can't stand that. I hate authority. I can't work like that. But Frank was good to me, always motivating. Even after a defeat he was always positive."

Arnesen and Jol have remained firm friends. Small wonder, then, that Jol is touted as a possible successor to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

It is not a position this ambitious 51-year-old, who talks so often about the gap in the financial clout of England's established big four and his own club, seems averse to filling. Jol stresses he has enormous respect for his Chelsea counterpart, referring to Mourinho as one of the "few legends" in English football. But in accordance with football's protocol, Jol refuses to covet another man's seat.

"(Mourinho has) said he will be there to 2010," he said. "This is my mission. I've got another three years here."

The four-times European champions Ajax could not tempt him from Tottenham last year but the sense is that only the timing was wrong. When asked if he fancied returning home to manage a big Dutch club or the national team, he says teasingly, "I could tell you a lot more, a lot more. But I don't . . . maybe we will have to wait and see in the future. I don't mean now."

In 10, 12 years then?

"No, maybe two or three. But I first have to do a job here."

Jol repeatedly refers to being the "best of the rest", holding up his achievements against those of David Moyes at Everton and his predecessors at Spurs.

"I will have been here six years and that would be marvellous - on average Spurs managers are here for 16 to 18 months," said Jol at an event to publicise Spurs' sponsorship by the poker and casino company Mansion. "I've been here 30 months so that's an achievement but it's still not where I want to be."

He is not talking geography but accomplishment. Though he believes he should be afforded concessions for the financial constraints at Tottenham, Jol will not be satisfied until he has won silverware. "We want to challenge for the top six and maybe a cup - it's important to win the FA Cup though I would rather win the Uefa Cup - but I won't feel that I've failed if I don't break into the top four.

"For me as a manager it would be important to win the title not the FA Cup. But is that possible at Spurs? I don't think so. So maybe in five or six years I will have to go to Ajax or PSV to win a title because that is the only domestic thing I have not won. I have won everything (else) in Holland - the FA Cup, the non-league, all the other cups. But is that possible? For me it's possible abroad but not at Spurs. Top four, say if one club falls out of the top four, Liverpool or Arsenal, why shouldn't we take up that position? Why not?"

Until then, the former first assistant must settle for being the best of the rest.

Guardian Service