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Jol: Tottenham's troubles caused by identity crisis

05/10/2008

Former Tottenham manager Martin Jol says the club's current predicament at the bottom of the Premier League is due to an identity crisis.

Jol says that when he was in charge the clear philosophy at Spurs was to buy young British players.

However, with the influx of foreign talent at Spurs this summer Jol feels that identity has now been lost.

The Dutchman cited the signings of Vedran Corluka, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Luka Modric and Giovanni dos Santos, claiming that it would take a longer time for them to come together as a team than if they had all been British.

Jol told the Sunday Times: "I feel if you work for an English club you need an English identity and I think that worked. We were developing young players and were in Europe every year."

The Hamburg manager said part of the change in philosophy was due to their desire to win trophies, by whatever method necessary.

He added: "They've changed the team's identity. They are so desperate for success that if they are not successful it will be a disaster."

However, Jol refused to blame sporting director Damien Comolli. The former Spurs boss says the 'continental structure' is good as long as the sporting director and manager work together.

"It's a good structure. If you work with a football director who's your choice, or you're his choice, the system functions," he claimed.

"But if one coach leaves and the next one is changing ten or 12 players what's the value of having the structure?"

Having left Spurs last season Jol took charge of Hamburg in the summer. His fortunes have fared better than his former club this season and Hamburg could return to the top of the Bundesliga today.