Martin Jol's Time Is Up: published by Henry Hoare

[Brown@FFC]

It's time for Martin Jol to go. After nearly 18 months of rank underperformance, the Dutchman is a dead man walking. Passionless, tactically inept on the field and tediously repetitive with his blame-game tactics off it, Jol is remarkably lucky to still have a job. That needs to change right now.
When he took over this Fulham side, we were in a very good state; Europa League football, top 10 finishes and a home record that was the envy of the rest of the league. We now sit in the relegation zone, European football a far-fetched dream and without a home league win since the start of April. Regression seems too generous and sugar-coated a description.

Jol claims it is not his fault because his hands have been tied in the transfer market and Fulham is one of the lowest spenders in the Premier League. Who is he kidding? Of the side he inherited from Mark Hughes, only Steve Sidwell, Brede Hangeland and Damian Duff remain as first-team regulars; this is his team. He complains about lack of funds but at a conservative estimate, the board committed to around £25 million in wages over the duration of the contracts signed by new players this summer. That seems like backing to me.

When the increasingly dour-faced Dutchman arrived at the club, he expressed his desire to reduce the age of the squad. He has failed miserably. With one of the most celebrated and successful youth programmes in England, how many players have been promoted under Jol's tenure? Not enough. Alex Kacaniklic is the only one to have played in the first team on a regular basis. Instead, Jol has added old legs on big money; rather than hunger and energy we have got pension-pot fillers with creaking knees.

Tactically, Jol has shown himself to be monstrously limited. Seemingly unaware of any weaknesses in the set-up of his side – paceless wingers, isolated full backs, lack of dynamism in central midfield, inability to defend set-pieces, tactical shapelessness... I could go on – he prefers to point fingers at his bosses for their lack of financial support and complain about 'over-expectant' fans.
As supporters who pay hard-earned money to watch our team play, we have every right to expect a level of performance from a team made up of internationals, and from a manager who gets paid a huge amount of money to pick and set up a team. We have reached a point where the level of performance is no longer acceptable; the buck stops with Jol.

The gutless performance at the weekend was one too many. The season is still young and there is time to bounce back and stave off the now real threat of relegation. But to achieve that, we need to start afresh; we need to get a manger in place who is capable of galvanising and organising a squad that is by no means short of quality. We've had enough of the excuses; Jol needs to go.

[Cravenawin]

Spot on. Great post

[BestOfBrede]

Bring in the youngsters from the academy...
Easy to say, but if we filled the team with these inexperienced kids and were losing games, then instead of slating older players we would have the young players getting it instead.
Of course, filling the team with youth may well work but there is no guarantee.

[Brown@FFC]

Bring in the youngsters from the academy...
Easy to say, but if we filled the team with these inexperienced kids and were losing games, then instead of slating older players we would have the young players getting it instead.
Of course, filling the team with youth may well work but there is no guarantee.

Villa took a big risk, and it paid off. If you have experience where needed, the captain and the holding CM, the youth will progress rapidly. Look at Benteke, Weimann, Westwood, Bennett etc. All of them would get in our team.

[MJG]

Bring in the youngsters from the academy...
Easy to say, but if we filled the team with these inexperienced kids and were losing games, then instead of slating older players we would have the young players getting it instead.
Of course, filling the team with youth may well work but there is no guarantee.

the thing is its about balance.
Look at our cm's its conceivable that if Diarra gets a contract will will have five of them aged 30 or over.
a better balance is maybe 2/3 at 30, one mid twentys and a u21.
We have a couple who I would be happy to see on the bench.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4

[Logicalman]

Bring in the youngsters from the academy...
Easy to say, but if we filled the team with these inexperienced kids and were losing games, then instead of slating older players we would have the young players getting it instead.
Of course, filling the team with youth may well work but there is no guarantee.

Villa took a big risk, and it paid off. If you have experience where needed, the captain and the holding CM, the youth will progress rapidly. Look at Benteke, Weimann, Westwood, Bennett etc. All of them would get in our team.

I cannot disagree with what you say, though we don't currently have a captain that's worth the suds to wash his shirt each week. Now, If Parker were to wear the armband, the youth players would receive that motivation, but whilst the manager (sic) relies on his current selection, we will go nowhere fast in that respect.

[LBNo11]

...I don't know who Henry Hoare is, but he has managed to encapsulate in this piece many of my views (although the dour-face Dutchman comment is uncalled for IMO) and more eloquently than I could have. Thanks for posting this Brown@FFC...

[jms]

 :plus one:

It's time for Martin Jol to go. After nearly 18 months of rank underperformance, the Dutchman is a dead man walking. Passionless, tactically inept on the field and tediously repetitive with his blame-game tactics off it, Jol is remarkably lucky to still have a job. That needs to change right now.
When he took over this Fulham side, we were in a very good state; Europa League football, top 10 finishes and a home record that was the envy of the rest of the league. We now sit in the relegation zone, European football a far-fetched dream and without a home league win since the start of April. Regression seems too generous and sugar-coated a description.

Jol claims it is not his fault because his hands have been tied in the transfer market and Fulham is one of the lowest spenders in the Premier League. Who is he kidding? Of the side he inherited from Mark Hughes, only Steve Sidwell, Brede Hangeland and Damian Duff remain as first-team regulars; this is his team. He complains about lack of funds but at a conservative estimate, the board committed to around £25 million in wages over the duration of the contracts signed by new players this summer. That seems like backing to me.

When the increasingly dour-faced Dutchman arrived at the club, he expressed his desire to reduce the age of the squad. He has failed miserably. With one of the most celebrated and successful youth programmes in England, how many players have been promoted under Jol's tenure? Not enough. Alex Kacaniklic is the only one to have played in the first team on a regular basis. Instead, Jol has added old legs on big money; rather than hunger and energy we have got pension-pot fillers with creaking knees.

Tactically, Jol has shown himself to be monstrously limited. Seemingly unaware of any weaknesses in the set-up of his side – paceless wingers, isolated full backs, lack of dynamism in central midfield, inability to defend set-pieces, tactical shapelessness... I could go on – he prefers to point fingers at his bosses for their lack of financial support and complain about 'over-expectant' fans.
As supporters who pay hard-earned money to watch our team play, we have every right to expect a level of performance from a team made up of internationals, and from a manager who gets paid a huge amount of money to pick and set up a team. We have reached a point where the level of performance is no longer acceptable; the buck stops with Jol.

The gutless performance at the weekend was one too many. The season is still young and there is time to bounce back and stave off the now real threat of relegation. But to achieve that, we need to start afresh; we need to get a manger in place who is capable of galvanising and organising a squad that is by no means short of quality. We've had enough of the excuses; Jol needs to go.

:plus one:

[Jack Fulham]

...I don't know who Henry Hoare is, but he has managed to encapsulate in this piece many of my views (although the dour-face Dutchman comment is uncalled for IMO) and more eloquently than I could have. Thanks for posting this Brown@FFC...

Henry Hoare II, known as Henry the Magnificent, was an English banker and garden owner-designer who died 1785.

It may well have been an ffc fan on twitter that happens to share the same name though.

[Logicalman]

Here are the links:

pickourteam
&
goallinetautology