O/t bmj

[Harry_Perkins]

Martin Jol did not inherit a team with players of the calibre of Ian Wright, Tony Adams, David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown, Nigel Winterburn, Steve Bould, Paul Merson and then add players of the quality of Bergkamp and Platt.

Yes, they had a few good individuals (not sure Steve Bould should be in that list though!) but they were very poor outside of that. Graham had lost the plot by the end signing dross like Glenn Helder and Chris Kiwomya. They had the back 5 along with Wright and Merson and that was it. Keeping that back 5 together probably kept them in the division. Again, they avoided the drop by 6 points. This is not very dissimilar to where we were in 2004. A few bright spots in the shape of Keane, King, Kanoute, Poyet but very poor outside of that. Obviously we'd been in decline longer and therefore had fallen years behind some clubs, so it was a more difficult to task to climb up the table but the general point remains that extra investment was made available and that played a large part in turning things around. More talented people then took it on from Rioch and Jol and took things much further.

 

[Harry_Perkins]

You make some very good points but I think you are being a bit unfair. Hodgson did well at Fulham but then crashed and burned at Liverpool (i.e. failed at a big club compared to Jol who had a degree of success at a big club)Hughes inherited a cup final team and built on it thereby continuing the success of Hodgson. Went on to crash and burn at QPR. Jol inherited a side from Hughes with already old players a year older and basically achieved a similar finish to his predecessors. Then he lost his 2 biggest players in Dembele and Dempsey and did not and has not replaced them. While Berba is world class the team around him is as mediocre (apart from Sasha Riether and poss Brede Hangerlaand) as I have seen at Fulham. Berba can blow hot and cold as we all know. Basically Jol now has a team devoid of quality and will struggle when their star player is out. Khan will have to back him - all I saw in the summer were freebies, loans and Parker.

I think they've all got mixed records. Periods of relative success but not sustained success. And that is why none of them are likely to end up in jobs with a big club ever again. If Jol is said to have had a degree of success with us then surely Hodgson also did at Inter? And not sure I agree on that analysis at Fulham. Yes, he's lost players but they've spent more than most down in that midtable much of a muchness. Enough to be finishing the top half anyway and not below the likes of Norwich and West Ham. I don't think it can really be said that he's doing as well as could be expected.

 

[Parklaner81]

The ONLY time HP posts on this forum is to belittle Jol. It's his only concern here.

=D> Glad I'm not the only one to have noticed this!

 

[Harry_Perkins]

=D> Glad I'm not the only one to have noticed this!

Bizarre. A quick look at my post history would reveal that I don't. For sure I've probably joined in discussion on this topic several times over the years and I've probably ended up making the same points several times but that is the nature of a discussion forum. What I have noticed over the years is that this discussion is a lot less heated now that a lot of the sentimentalism and emotion of his sacking has wore off. And with this, more and more people have come around to agreeing with I've been saying. On this basis I'm hardly the only one 'belittling' him (which I don't). I give him credit where it is due, say he was the best coach we've had since Venables and that he was a good appointment for the position we were in at the time. This doesn't seem to be enough for some though. Tough ****, frankly. His record is what it is.