Martin Jol has insisted he doesn’t have a problem with Juande Ramos as the Spaniard prepares to bring his Dnipro side to Craven Cottage tomorrow night.
Ramos replaced Jol at Tottenham in 2007 after the Dutchman’s controversial sacking and the press have attempted to write up Fulham’s Europa League play-off round tie with the Ukrainian side as a grudge match. Jol insists that there are no problems between the two managers, however. Sky do suggest that these quotes are ‘a sly dig’ at Ramos though:
He was there for 10 or 11 months and moved on and then ended up in Ukraine. So it’s something to think about.
Jol was keen to give tomorrow’s opponents fulsome praise too.
They play well. I was there last year playing Dynamo Kiev.
I think it is a strong competition. It’s a good team, if you know the level of football over there. They’ve got a couple of good teams, very strong teams.
Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk
We are confident, but 0-0 will not be the best of results. We need a cushion to go there because at home they are strong. We’ll need a good result.
Ramos is also unconcerned by the sub-plots ahead of the game.
It really is not up to coaches to decide the future of their career. We’re all professionals here and only clubs can make the decision of who they want to keep and who they want to send out. Really, it is not up to us. It really is up to the clubs.
