21 August 2007
Time for Jol to Go
If there is one thing that the British press love more than any other, it is a spectacular fall from grace.
They love this well trodden news path for two reasons. The first is the inherent love of seeing a much-like person torn from their position of achievement and tossed on the scrapheap - it makes these bitter underachieving hacks feel better about themselves to see someone more successful than them, fail.
The second - and probably more pertinent - is that it is a story arc that they themselves can have a direct influence over which in turn increases the satisfaction over the first point (as well as appealing to the power hungry).
Let’s say the press had not stoked the flames beneath Martin Jol after the two defeats; the board room would not have read about the negativity, the pressured players may not have played so poorly in the second game, anonymous sources around the club may have had nothing to talk about, the supposed meeting between Sevilla’s Juande Ramos and a member of Tottenham would not even have been a rumour.
Now, just as I write this the BBC website have a story “Berbatov dismisses Jol row claims”. I keep an eye on almost every news outlet I know of and I have heard absolutely nothing about this. Of course the article is right - there is no row - certainly Berbatov was upset at being substituted but this article is a fine example of inciting the reader with a denial of false information; that it is even ‘newsworthy’ will mean many readers will assume there is truth in it. After all, news reporting is about reporting - not opinion (yeah right) - many readers will think that the report asks he or she to make up their own opinion about what happened and many will conclude that Jol did have an argument with Berbatov and does want to sell him.
No matter, the press have sunken their yellowed, pungent, decaying teeth into Jol’s neck and will not be letting go. At this stage even should no more happen, enough damage has been done to ensure Jol’s position is untenable; the players. They will have read all of this (the affable Darren Bent has already talked of the “ridiculous” pressure on his manager) and the one thing that is guaranteed to unsettle the payers is… uncertainty. That and travelling to Old Trafford next.
The results will not now improve, the pressure will increase, Jol will be gone.
I for one would rather it happens sooner rather than later so that this season is not consigned to the swollen category of ‘building season’ and a man as nice as Martin Jol who has done precisely nothing to warrant this most undignified and brutal assassination can leave with his pride and the best wishes of all but one or two Spurs fans.
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/clubupdate.html
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.