Martin Jol has been called many things in private by various Tottenham directors
during what has been a spiky managerial tenure. Yet the Dutchman cannot ever
have envisaged the label that clings to him at present and undermines him most
gravely - that which says "caretaker".As Jol labours on through protracted
crisis, the proverbial gun to his head, the impression given is that he has
become a new type of caretaker manager. Nobody, at this moment, would bet on him
being in charge at Tottenham next season, but with no alternative readily
available to the chairman, Daniel Levy, he remains.If he can stabilise results
he may make Christmas; dramatic improvement, which he effected last season after
a similarly bad start, and he could last until the spring. On the other hand,
further spirals of decline might force Levy to fire the bullet and, at worst,
look for a more conventional caretaker until the end of the season.Jol has been
labelled a "dead man" in managerial terms. That he continues to walk is becoming
more and more grisly.Tottenham have repeatedly tried to clean up the unseemly
mess that are Jol's job prospects at the club. Official statements have churned
out, and yesterday brought the latest.Levy wanted to make supporters aware that
he and his fellow directors had not held a board meeting of any sort on Monday
to consider Jol's immediate future or lack thereof. He also strenuously denied
that a severance package had been agreed for Jol's departure. The Dutchman would
be entitled to a pay-off if his contract, which runs until the end of next
season, were to be terminated but beyond the small print of his deal there was
nothing else to discuss.Yet in these dark and paranoid times at White Hart Lane,
where each utterance from Levy, Jol or anyone in authority is scrutinised for
covert meaning, central figures and onlookers alike have grown dizzy and
frustrated.The club have only themselves to blame, having been rumbled in the
middle of last month holding a clandestine meeting with Juande Ramos, the
Sevilla coach, with a view to installing him as Jol's successor.If the episode
was deeply embarrassing, then the statements that followed immediately were even
more so. In only the third one, did Levy get around to offering Jol his full
support. The impression then was that Jol was on borrowed time and nothing has
changed since.The secret is out of the bag. Levy and his directors felt that Jol
was not the man to outmanoeuvre the managers at the big four clubs, against whom
he has an uninspiring record, and lead the team to a Champions League finish,
which they viewed as the logical progression after consecutive fifth-placed
Premier League finishes. Try as they might, they have been unable to magic it
back under wraps.The club believe themselves to be under siege from a hostile
media, their only recourse being to fight back via official statements. There is
a certain irony in that few journalists, print or broadcast, actually want to
see Jol depart. But the situation has become so complicated, so fraught, that
the pressure is undermining Jol and the team. They step unto the breach once
more this evening, against Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup at White Hart
Lane.Levy declared that it was his duty to explore managerial alternatives if
the incumbent was failing to deliver while there has also been the feeling at
boardroom level that Jol has been no angel, having allowed his name to be linked
with several top jobs - most recently, Holland, Newcastle United and Manchester
City. Now, with the team in the bottom three, Levy really does have to make
contingencies but his every move is viewed as another twist of the knife into
Jol's back. Levy is damned if he does; likewise, if he doesn't.Jol is icily
pragmatic about his job being touted. He knows that everything goes on and
around in football. How Tottenham wish, however, that they had not been caught
under those exploding flashbulbs with Ramos.
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