Tottenham head coach Martin Jol admits he is powerless to stop on-loan Egyptian striker Mido from signing for another club but remains hopeful of persuading him to stay.

Jol insists Spurs are still locked in talks with Mido and his adviser Mino Raiola on making his temporary stay a permanent one. Raiola revealed yesterday that other clubs had overtaken Spurs in the race to land the player, who has been on loan at White Hart Lane from Roma since January 2005.

But Jol denied he was reluctant to speak out about the situation because Raiola also looks after his interests. The Monaco-based agent suggested that Spurs were unwilling to match Roma's valuation of the player and Jol admitted that his future would ultimately be decided by the right negotiations.

"We are talking to him and I appreciate he has got the right to talk to other clubs as well because he is on loan," admitted Jol. "I don't know if he has already spoken to other clubs, they won't tell me that.

"It is his right to talk to other clubs but we are all in the same boat. Mido knows what we think and I know what he wants so there is no problem. It is up to him but of course it is about money. If we want to sign somebody it is about money."

Jol underlined the fact he does not get involved in the financial aspects of transfers and reiterated that it is not a disadvantage having the same agent as the player.

"It is not a real problem because on the other hand, I would never have got him if I hadn't known his agent," said Jol. "So that was an advantage. It is not a disadvantage now."

Neither does the Dutch coach fear that some of Tottenham's Premiership rivals will try to steal the player from under their noses at the end of the season.

"Maybe he will go back to Roma, you never know," said Jol. "We could have done business with them earlier. But I told him if he scores between 12 and 15 goals and looks sharp, then he has got his deal. We will wait and see what happens.

"He has scored 11 goals and fulfilled his part of the bargain. I don't regret not tying it up before but he was on loan and normally you take a player on loan for a year or six months, but we managed to get him for 18.

"It was probably the first time in the history of football to get somebody like him on loan for 18 months. I still feel he wants to stay here and he likes it here. It is a matter of negotiating - you know what I mean."