The Guardian are also reporting that Fulham are making a big play for Martin Jol.
Fulham appear to be his more likely destination by virtue of Fulham keeping in close contact with the former Tottenham manager after he turned down the chance to replace Roy Hodgson last summer, which rather goes against the theory that Mohamed Al-Fayed holds grudges against those who have crossed him in the past. The Guardian report also stresses that Fulham are planning to offer Jol ‘a huge salary’ in attempt to prevent him from being tempted by the vacancy at Aston Villa.
Perhaps the closing lines of this piece are most intriguing however, as they detail how Al-Fayed has responded to the events of the last few days:
Fulham’s anger at what they perceive to have been a betrayal by Hughes has been best reflected by Fayed. He sent a message to each one of his first-team players to stress that the success of this past season had been a team effort, with the subtext being that Hughes’s loss was of no concern.
Fayed, though, is looking forward and he has been inundated with applications for the vacant post. Avram Grant and Chris Hughton have been among the managers to show an interest. Martin O’Neill and McClaren have also been touted.
Hmm. I was surprised that Jol had not found a job after finally leaving Ajax. I suppose seeing the way Hughes has used us makes Jol’s apparent flirting last year seem less bad. Always have to read between the lines to guess what really goes on behind closed doors.
Last year I thought Jol was a good option but was happier that we got Hughes.
Would still like to see Martin O’Neil but Jol is an intriguing alternative.
I prefer Martin O’Neil. He obviously has scrupples and if he came he would want to hang around longer than Jol who would be trying to use us as a stepping stone. O’Neil has passion and ambition and that might be the only problem, our lack of ambition. I think with our recent good finishing positions MAF needs to step up (once again) and invest in a few players to allow us to step up as a team. We should be trying to take Spurs’ place from them, like Man City have taken Liverpool’s. I am convinced this could be done with a few new players a good manager and some luck on the injury front. COYW
O’Neil would be a dream but Jol would also be pretty inspiring for the players, not like Sparky who came in moaning about his treatment at City and continued to huff the whole time. What a handshake specialist he turned out to be. What would you think to Hughton? Too inexperienced? The only name currently giving me nightmares is McClaren…