News Round-Up:Martin Jol has been called many things in private by various Tottenham directors during what has been a spiky managerial tenure. Yet, the Dutchman cannot ever have envisaged the label that clings to him at present and undermines him most gravely - that which says "caretaker".
As Jol labours on through protracted crisis, the proverbial gun to his head, the impression given is that he has become a new type of caretaker manager. Nobody, at this moment, would bet on him being in charge at Tottenham next season, but with no alternative readily available to the chairman, Daniel Levy, he remains.
If he can stabilise results he may make Christmas; dramatic improvement, which he effected last season after a similarly bad start, and he could last until the spring. On the other hand, further spirals of decline might force Levy to fire the bullet and, at worst, look for a more conventional caretaker until the end of the season.
Tottenham have repeatedly tried to clean up the unseemly mess that are Jol's job prospects at the club. Official statements have churned out, and yesterday brought the latest.
Levy wanted to make supporters aware that he and his fellow directors had not held a board meeting of any sort on Monday to consider Jol's immediate future or lack thereof. He also strenuously denied that a severance package had been agreed for Jol's departure.
In these dark and paranoid times at White Hart Lane, where each utterance from Levy, Jol or anyone in authority is scrutinised for covert meaning, central figures and onlookers alike have grown dizzy and frustrated.
The club have only themselves to blame, having been rumbled in the middle of last month holding a clandestine meeting with Juande Ramos, the Sevilla coach, with a view to installing him as Jol's successor.
If the episode was deeply embarrassing, the statements that followed immediately were even more so. In only the third one, did Levy get around to offering Jol his full support. The impression then was that Jol was on borrowed time and nothing has changed since.
The secret is out of the bag. Levy and his directors felt that Jol was not the man to outmanoeuvre the managers at the big four clubs and lead the team to a Champions League finish, which they viewed as the logical progression after consecutive fifth-placed Premier League finishes. Try as they might, they have been unable to magic it back under wraps.
The club believe themselves to be under siege from a hostile media, their only recourse being to fight back via official statements. They step unto the breach once more this evening, against Middlesbrough in the League Cup at White Hart Lane.
