"We are in a circumstance where our chairman says, 'We take this big prospect, we take Jenas.' And there's a discussion, because I will say we have others and he says, 'Can Jenas be a goalscoring midfielder, box-to-box?' and I say 'You're right'. Out had gone older, high-earning or expensive buys such as Sergei Rebrov, Christian Ziege and Milenko Acimovic."If [Michael] Carrick or [Reto] Ziegler are 26 they would be playing in a top team, possibly, as we would have to pay too much money for them," Jol explains. "So our philosophy is to get them early and make the same players out of them without paying too much." This summer he also recognised the need for experience - picking up Edgar Davids, Teemu Tainio and Paul Stalteri on free transfers.But then there was the purchase of Jermaine Jenas for £7m, someone it is said that Tottenham's chairman Daniel Levy was keener on than Jol himself. That was never my intention." But when Santini left Jol was the popular, immediate choice. "They asked the players, they asked Frank and they all said, 'We should do that'."A rapidly evolving squad was inherited.
"There were 20 new players but I was never responsible for them. Santini said, 'This will be very difficult' and he was right." The big change was what he now describes as "a new philosophy of young players", investing in the future, quite literally "It was a transformation," Jol says. By then he had also confirmed in his mind that "England is the best country" for football.Jol does not really know why he always wanted to manage Spurs, but when he was growing up they were his favourite team, "the biggest club in England". But when the call came, from the then sporting director Frank Arnesen, it was not to be manager or head coach Jol was wanted as Santini's assistant That made it hard. "It was difficult for me because I had been my own boss for 15 years.
But Frank said, 'You have to come', and I thought, 'If I don't do this then it will be almost impossible for me to coach in England'."The job description was clear He was in charge of training But then Santini brought in his own man, Dominique Cuperly "That was a disappointment," Jol says. "Even then I thought 'maybe he's right' because he knew his assistant. But I thought I was to be the assistant."He did not complain and neither did he expect events to unravel as they did: "I didn't come here to be head coach in three months. When his country's third big club, Ajax, came calling he had already joined Spurs "And I made the choice to stay here," Jol says. "It changed the style, but not for the worse."In the Netherlands, after his playing career ended, aged 34 and back at Den Haag, he had startling success.
