Football is a very cruel game. A lot of people agree to that. But few people agree more with that. One of them is Martin Jol. Nobody has been as unlucky as he has been in football. As a football manager, he has had to endure one misfortune or the other. Astonishingly, none has diminished his popularity. However, they have cost him a lot.
When he was appointed Tottenham manager in 2004, the whole world realised a round peg, for once, had been put in a round hole. 4th place and a champions' league beckoned at the expense of arch-rivals Arsenal, but food poison stopped that. The next season saw him linked with close friend, Jose Mourinho's job at Chelsea. Unfortunately, his stock reduced with a few bad results and Chelsea talks were over.
He moved to Germany to manage Hamburg. On the verge of qualifying his team for the UEFA Cup final, he was again linked with Bayern Munich. He would go on to lose the match after a balloon thrown in by fans intercepted a ball to his net. Bayern talk was dead.
He went to Ajax Armstadam, and helped Ajax score lots of goals and concede less in a season, and was promptly linked to Liverpool. Well, his team went on to lose the league, and Roy Hodgson got the Liverpool job. That is the extent of his hard luck. But his stock is yet to diminish.
Now Aston Villa and Fulham want him. As he joins one of them, he knows he has to avoid the bad lucks. He would have been competing with the Mourinhos, Bernitezs, and Ancelottis of this world without it.
The next club he goes to would be significant in many ways, including redeeming his unlucky self.