Jol on... West Ham United

  • by Staff Writer
  • Monday, 2nd December 2013

KUMB.com were present as a physically-drained Martin Jol delivered his final post-match press conference as Fulham manager before he was fired. His full presser exclusively for you here...

Martin: are your players still fighting for you?

[long pause] I think so, because in the last few weeks every time we had a disappointing game we managed to pick them up, and they picked themselves up, to try to be 100 per cent for the next game.

I feel that even before the game with the influence of my bigger players, my captain and my vice-captain we had an unbelievably good spirit again. The first goal was a hammer blow although that took 46 minutes [to arrive] - and it took until the 82nd minute before they scored a second goal.

The last ten minutes summed everything up. We wanted to substitute Kieran [Ricardson] because of a hamstring problem and after that they scored the second goal. Because we couldn't make the swap I brought Moussa Dembele on and he pulled his hamstring after 30 seconds for the first time in his life, he said. So pretty symbolic of the second half.

You had your head in your hands when the third goal went in. What do you think this means today?

No... It's more the way we did it. You saw the goal, it was almost too easy on the left. They got through and we lacked a bit of mental and physical toughness.

Are you worried that this could be your last game in charge?

If I had to worry I would probably have worried a couple of months ago. It's not from one day or the other, it's over the last two months we've been inconsistent.

Why has it not worked out for you here, do you think?

I think it worked out for me, because we've won plenty of points - probably more than West Ham over the last couple of years and more than any other team in the bottom half of the table. But over the last couple of months... Sometimes we are not strong enough.

Are you not tempted to walk away, Martin?

No. I'm someone who's got maybe eight, nine hundred games under my belt as a manager. 1,400 probably in total and I know that three points can give you a totally different view.

Is this your worst run you can remember as a manager?

Yes.

What was up with Djimitar today?

He didn't feel too well yesterday so we decided not to take him. I spoke to him as I wanted to play him as I thought we needed to play with a better tempo. The first half was ok but to come out and concede in the first minute or so, that was awful.

No fall out with Djimitar?

No, no.

Six defeats in a row now, that is a hard thing to overcome isn't it?

Yes and that is why we are in the bottom three of the table. That will happen if you don't get the points. If we'd beaten West Ham they would probably be in the same situation. There's other teams and there will be other managers in the next couple of weeks who'll need the points to get out of that situation. We didn't today, again.

You had no shots on target; was that a big disappointment for you?

Yes and that is not the first time, which is why we changed it up front. Last year we almost always had the same front four and we scored 21 goals [by this stage in the season] - 10 goals more than now.

How confident are you that you will be manager come next weekend?

It's not in my hands.


* On Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after Fulham's defeat at the Boleyn Ground, the Cottagers announced that they had parted company with Martin Jol. You may read the Club's statement here.

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