Martin Jol is the right man for Fulham

Roy Hodgson did an absolutely wonderful job as the manager of Fulham and it was a devastating blow for the club to lose him to Liverpool.

I wondered if this could be a very bad time for Fulham because their success seemed intrinsically linked to Hodgson, in the way that Charlton flourished under Alan Curbishley and then plummeted when he left.

Secret

It is now a not very well kept secret that later this week the current Ajax boss Martin Jol will named as Hodgson’s replacement. This is great news for Fulham fans and I think this appointment is about as good as you could have had.

There were plenty of other managers linked to the role. Sven Goran Eriksson is believed to have talked to Fulham but is now talking about signing an extension to his contract with Ivory Coast. Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has ruled himself out of contention and the US soccer federation have made it quite clear that Bob Bradley is going nowhere.

Best

I’m sure any of those three managers would been OK for Fulham but I am even more sure that Martin Jol is the best man for the job.

The fifty-four year old Jol will be walking away from champions league football with Ajax, assuming they get through the qualifying rounds, but he has never made a secret of his desire to have another go at the Premier League.

Sacked

Despite being sacked by Tottenham back in 2007, Jol still has a house in England, and will be warmly welcomed back to the country where he was always a popular manager (apart from with Arsene Wenger!).

Fulham left for a ten day pre-season tour to Sweden yesterday and Ray Lewington will remain in charge for that trip but it is expected that Martin Jol will fly out to join the party at some stage once the personal negotiations have been completed.

Recognition

After a playing career that saw Jol play over four hundred games for teams in three different countries and earn international recognition for Holland three times he started his coaching career in 1991 with amateur side ADO Den Haag. He led them to the highest amateur division and then moved on to another amateur side, Schevengen, who he led to the national non-league championship.

His first professional job was with Roda JC in the Eridivisie and he took them to their first trophy in thirty years, winning the Dutch cup. He moved on to RKC Waalwijk, saving them from relegation and twice winning the Dutch coach of the year award.

Assistant

In the Summer of 2004 Jol moved to Tottenham as their assistant manager under Jacques Santini. However, by November Santini was gone and Jol was installed as the manager.

He took them to ninth place in that first season and then followed this with two fifth placed finishes and European qualification.

Sacked

Despite his fine record as a manager at the club and before he arrived, a poor run of results in the 2007-08 season saw Jol sacked in October.

For the 2008-09 season, Jol was manager at Bundesliga club Hamburg. He took them to fifth place and European qualification and then moved back to Holland to manage Ajax.

Victory

The season went well and he led them to second place, Champions League qualification and victory in the Dutch cup.

As can be seen, it could be said that Martin Jol has never had an unsuccessful full season as a manager since he started doing the job in 1991. He may not have won too many trophies but he has done a great job at every club he has been at. At Fulham, he won’t be expected to win trophies but success will be viewed as keeping them as a top half Premier League side with a chance of European qualification.

Martin Jol is quite capable of keeping up the good work started by Roy Hodgson.