Sky Sports have another angle from Martin Jol’s press conference – splashing on the Fulham manager’s insistence that the club are prepared to spend serious money to strengthen their side in the transfer market, but that they will only invest in the right player.
The Dutchman admits that he was interested in signing Kevin Mirallas before the Belgian winger joined tomorrow’s opponents Everton from Olympiakos in the summer. Jol’s shrewd summer acquisitions included bringing in Mladen Petric and Hugo Rodallega on free transfers, as well as tying up a permanent deal for Mahamadou Diarra. He has proven willing to spend some of Mohamed Al Fayed’s millions for the right type of talent as shown by his purchases of both Byran Ruiz and Dimitar Berbatov.
Despite having elected not to enter the bidding for Mirallas, Jol remains insistence that he isn’t working on a shoestring budget and would happily invest if it meant securing a key signing:
Of course we would do it if it was necessary. I always try to find the real bargains and I think we did that. With (Nikica) Jelavic, Everton probably did that.
