During Tottenham’s 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough, Tottenham fans booed Martin Jol’s decision to remove Jermain Defoe, after he had looked lively and earned his ‘recall’ to the team.
However, I’m not so sure Jol trusts Defoe as much as his other strikers, apparently drafting him in to ‘less important games’ such as the Carling Cup 3rd round, but leaving him out of the Tottenham squad in crunch ties such as against Arsenal.
The former Charlton and West Ham man seems to have become even more of a fan favourite recently, constantly re-stating his commitment to the club, despite his certain position of fourth choice striker.
This is probably one of the reasons why Jol was booed for removing him for Robbie Keane, but it seems the big Dutchman was vindicated two minutes later as he set up Gareth Bale to score our first of the night.
However, has this become all to predictable? I now know that if the score is 0-0 or we are 1-0 down and there is around 60-70 minutes of the game played, Jol will bring on a striker. Sure, you might say, what else do you expect him to do? More strikers should mean more goals.
And whilst this is true, I would like to see more tactical nous from the boss. This has already been said countless times though, so I won’t harp on about it.
Sacking Jol
Jol has recently come out and said that if he is removed, all the progress Tottenham have made in the past couple of years could be erased as we once again enter a period of instability.
“The fans know how difficult it is if they change management again, they know you could easily go back for years.
“I hope people are realistic – you can get anyone in the world to come, but to do better you must finish fourth.
“The speculation isn’t a nice position to be in, but I can’t do anything about it.
“The continuity is important – we were fifth two years in-a-row, I don’t think anybody else could do any better.
“The continuity of the club is important and we did that here with my staff over the last couple of years.
“We won a lot of points, had nine wins in Europe and got back into Europe via the league, which probably didn’t happen for 25 years or so.
“So the fans realise and they appreciate my work and that is a good feeling.”
Indeed we do, and perhaps when it is seen in this light; change now will only fuel instability, then maybe we should give Jol time.
What do you think? Will removing Jol create instability at Tottenham?
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