Put another Euro in the juke-box, baby: Germany loves Martin Jol. The standard line of German comedy – our only line, some might say – is to poke fun at Dutch camper van drivers who clog up the Autobahn. Jol is currently proving a similarly immovable but much more popular object. Turn on the TV, and he's there, in his baseball cap and XXL tracksuit, making good use of the 16:9 format, grinning contentedly and cracking one of his dry, sardonic jokes. (The other week, when Schalke striker Jefferson Farfán and HSV keeper Frank Rost got entangled in the net and on top of each other, he said the scene reminded him of a film he'd seen the night before.)
Look at any newspaper and you'll find gushing tributes to the 53-year-old's work, framed by sycophantic Martin Jol Q&A pieces and flattering quotes from players/officials. "He has a good philosophy and great eye for analysis," says German international Marcell Jansen, for example. "And he's very honest."
Jol has been around long enough not to take the adulation too seriously. "Fans want to experience success," he said. "When you give it to them, they like you. But that can change in an instant, too. It's important to keep your feet on the ground." His calm and coolness have rubbed off on the club. Jol's greatest achievement – apart from making HSV serious Meisterschaft contenders, getting them into the semi-final of the German Cup and into the last eight of an international competition for the first time since 1983, the year they won the European Cup – was to bring an incredible sense of stability to a team who have undergone yet another drastic change in the summer.
Hamburg, a former powerhouse of European football who are currently being rebuilt, having once again sold some of their best players and brought in a shipload of cheaper alternatives. It's the Tottenham business model, if you will, but without the collateral damage: this side are packed with young, gifted players such as Piotr Trochowski, Mladen Petric or Jansen, who would shine everywhere. And despite a list of injuries as long and tedious as a Hera Lind novel (don't ask), "the team have always found a solution this season", according to the manager. Well, he has.
Depending on late fitness tests for striker Paolo Guerrero and utility man Colin Benjamin, Hamburg might be without 11 players tonight against Manchester City. It's been like that all season. Personnel and formations have been in constant flux but, as Namibian Benjamin says, "a musketeer mentality" within the squad and the meticulous preparation by Jol have achieved consistently good results. "I've got a good team in my head for the match on Thursday," Jol said.
The northerners don't need to remind themselves of their manager's 100% record against City in the Premier League – he won all six games while at Spurs – to feel bullish. The Croatian international Petric thinks that "City aren't a team we need to hide from". "There is a lot of euphoria and that's a good thing", added sporting director Dietmar Beiersdorfer. President Bernd Hoffmann said he could "smell" a sense of festivity emanating from the HSH Nordbank Arena pitch.
Jol's success with attacking, fast-paced football will surely encourage more Bundesliga clubs to look abroad when it comes to management. No one queries his big staff, including a dedicated technical coach, anymore. His most important employee is not even on the club's payroll. Jol personally provides for his brother Cornelis "Cock" Jol, 55, who works as his assistant and lives with him in the beautiful riverside house Jol bought when he took the Hamburg job. The two meet every morning with their partners for coffee in the kitchen; their evenings are spent watching and discussing the game.
Martin might dress like janitor but the German press have discovered a veritable renaissance man behind the scruffy exterior. Jol, a property millionaire who is said to own 40 houses in Den Haag, has talked at length about his vast art collection and his Calvinist upbringing: his mother didn't allow football nor trips to the beach on Sundays. Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that the Jols have been a famous family in their birthplace of Scheveningen for more than 400 years. There is a Cornelis Jol Street in the small coastal town, named after an ancestor who was a feared buccaneer. His nickname was Houtebeen, wooden leg.
Martin Jol, it seems, is equally happy to risk a limb or two in the line of duty. "I would give my little finger for success," he told Abendblatt. Odds are, there will be blood.
I love Martin Jol, and I like to think that he would love me (but I'm needy that way).
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Martin Jol, Big in Germany
Discussion in 'Spurscommunity Front Page News' started by BelsizeSpur, Apr 9, 2009.
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