Firstly let me say I have always been a big supporter of Jol & have always had high hopes that he would be around to bring trophies to the club. He's a nice guy - I would be proud to see the team I love become a real force with Jol in charge.

In his first full season he was like a breath of fresh air and things clicked into place and we flew - ending up unlucky not to finish fourth.

Last season he had a few more problems to content with - half the first team had changed in the summer & we suffered some key injuries - however I was impressed how he turned things round after the Feyenoord "break".

Even after a poor start I would fancy Jol to be able to repeat the trick & get us into 5th this season, just like I would still expect Man Utd to be there or there abouts for the title come the end of the season. The problem Jol has got is that the board are expecting more this season & the fact that we are still being blighted by the flaws that hampered us last season will not be filling them with confidence.

With the exception of Man Utd, the rest of the top 4 that we're supposed to be challenging have all hit the ground running & for the second season running we've limped out of the traps. I'm sure the fact that we couldn't afford another poor start like last season would have been discussed pre-season, and that fact that we've struggled to get going again may have caused any concerns the board may have been harbouring during last season back to the fore.

There is no doubt that the majority of Spurs fans don't want to see Jol depart, but like most of them I will continue to support Spurs & go to matches, etc if they do. The new man will have my full support from the moment he walks in the door & I hope he will be able to get the best out of the talent at their disposal. After all the club is always bigger than any individual.

I will however be disappointed because ultimately Jol's departure will be down to a lack of patience - this now now now attitude rearing it's ugly head at board level. We all know that Jol isn't the finished article, however it's hard to miss the irony in a situation where Spurs spend a large proportion of their transfer budget on potential, but aren't prepared to give one of the best, up & coming managers around the opportunity to prove he's the real deal.

Whatever happened to consolidation - we've had two good seasons, is everyone so desperate to progress to the next level that they can't bear to pause & take stock for a while?

Getting a new manager in at this stage may have the desired effect and kick us on to the next level, but it might have the opposite effect & have an unsettling effect on our season. How often have our Geordie friends panicked at a slow start and changed their manager quickly & taken a step backwards as a result? The progress under Jol may be slower - but you know pretty much what you're going to get, and I can't help but come back to the fact that having bought so many young players - what exactly were the board hoping for other than patiently building for the future? Forty odd million on players under the age of 23 suggests it's going to be good, but it may take a while - so why can't we allow Jol the luxury of developing his skills whilst we wait?

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