So the rumours hitting the street are that Jurgen Klinsmann has answered Daniel Levy’s ad in the classifieds to replace Martin Jol and finally expressed his interest in the job. On the one hand, Jurgen is an incredibly progressive coach who will introduce the latest techniques in training and fitness. On the other, he has done absolutely nothing on a club level and only managed to take a German national team to the semi-finals of the World Cup on home soil. A decent, if not particularly surprising result. But other than actual managerial experience, Klinsmann ticks all the right boxes. He showed the strength to pick unknown, form players for Germany in the face of public disapproval. He introduced training techniques that got him laughed at in the press, but ultimately proved innovative and decisive.
But at this point its moot. Levy and the board’s utter mishandling of the manager search earlier in the season has forced them to back Martin Jol publicly, far more than they would have wanted to, and are slave to results rather than availability of the right man. Only if Spurs are still struggling come Christmas, hardly an unlikely scenario given our upcoming fixtures, can Levy pull the trigger on Jol without massive backlash. Even if Jurgen is the right man and wants to come, the board will not have the balls to do anything now after all the bad press they’ve received for their treatment of Jol.
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They are a slave to Damien Comolli and the DoF, which Klinsmann would never work under. It’s a mute point.
dont get me wrong i like jol, BUT i think the general fitness of the team needs to be looked at we seem to conceed sooooo many late goals. germans are famous for being fit and organised maby tottenham could do with some of that. but i hope jol can turn it around. COYS
To be fair, I’m not sure about the “only” taking Germany to the semis part. Let’s not forget the Germans were a laughing stock who capitulated to the US prior to the tournament, amongst others. Expectations were low. He revamped the setup completely in the lead-up to the tournament proper and showed great foresight in blooding Odonkor, playing Frings deeper, giving Borowski a chance etc. Some of his selections were a bit oddball though (Mike Hanke???) Nonetheless they ended up playing some of the most thrilling football of the tournament, even in the matches where they barely scraped through. And indeed they were only minutes away from the final itself, only being denied by a last gasp set of goals. Had it gone to a shootout… well we all know about Germans and shootouts.
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