"A few months into his time at Tottenham Hotspur, Martin Jol was sitting in his office at the training ground when there was a knock at the door. A club official appeared in the doorway dangling some car keys and outside was a brand new Porsche, a present from chairman Daniel Levy to Jol to mark the manager's 49th birthday.

The £70,000 sports car was also Levy's way of saying "thank you" after Jol turned the team's fortunes around with the minimum of fuss. The Dutchman had taken over and steadied the ship after the ill-judged appointment of Jacques Santini had left Levy with egg on his face. Jol took one look at the car, stuck out his Desperate Dan chin and joked: "It's a pity it's not a Cabriolet."

During his three-year spell at Tottenham he was jovial at times, spiky at others, but always driven. Jol is not alone among managers in wanting to better himself and in showing little shame in using one club as a stepping stone to manage another, bigger, one elsewhere.

However, Jol does have previous when it comes to playing one side off brazenly against another. He did it in 2007 when he was doing well at Spurs, but was only too happy to court the attentions of Newcastle until he was spotted by club officials in the company of the Newcastle chairman, Freddy Shepherd, who at that time was in search of another new manager.

The winner three years ago was Jol, who was able to use the interest from Newcastle to engineer himself another pay rise at Tottenham.  Jol is more ruthless about the situation (doing better for himself), that he is unconcerned about leaving those involved with a bad taste in their mouths. He seemed to show little mind for Levy's feelings regarding the birthday Porsche.  The Spurs chairman is understood to have been hurt at Jol's apparent lack of gratitude for the car, and the grievance remained until Levy gave the manager the sack in October 2007 after an indifferent start to the season. They have patched up their differences and are now back on cordial terms again."

"Jol gave me a lot of confidence. I was honoured when he made me captain of the team and I felt responsible."
 

“I had one situation in my career, Newcastle away playing for Spurs; it was the first time I’d gone back to St James’ Park, and I was getting absolutely hammered by the whole of the St James’ Park crowd. They had all of the goldfish signs up and everything.

At half-time, as the game had been playing out, I was playing right-wing, and I didn’t want to play there so I was already fuming that the manager’s put me right-wing. I think that he played Edgar Davids, and [Michael] Carrick - although it might not have been - in midfield. They were decent.  But when I’m playing against my old team; people say that when you’re playing against your old side then it’s more pressure, but it’s almost easier. You’ve trained with them every single day, you know what’s coming, you know what strengths of the opposition and each individual are, more than when you’re playing against other sides.

I was just so desperate to play in my position against my old team, so I’d gone into the game angry, I’m watching the game develop, and then I think Lee Bowyer ran off the back of Edgar Davids and scored in the game.  My head’s gone, because I’d been shouting at Edgar, saying: ‘Track him! Track him! Track him!’

I’ve come in at half-time, and Martin Jol straightaway came for me. I’m like: ‘Hang on a minute, have you not seen him [Davids]? You’re coming for me, and he’s just left his runner in central-midfield’.

So we’re at each other, really at each other, and when I stood up, then I just remember thinking: ‘Wow, this guy is massive’. Literally I think everyone jumped in, split us apart, and it just didn’t go well that game.

He then called me in on Monday, and to be fair on him he said: ‘You can’t do that. You just can’t do that’. After that, from then on, we had an excellent relationship. It was just weird.”
 

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"He was responsible for most of the football side of it.  I Said to Daniel (Levy) When I came to England, 'If you leave me, if you let me work for you, they will push you around the streets of London like a king.  And they never did, but he knew what I meant."

"I am thinking Daniel is different.  Daniel was different !  We had them in Holland.  We call them Sugar Uncles.  They were people who were owning the club and you had to meet with them every week."

"At one moment I was very proud of my team, especially in the first half.  It's amazing, after working for just five or six days with them, to be pressuring Arsenal and to score the first goal.  The game was like being in Heaven and having a nightmare at the same time."

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