Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder.
RKC Waalwijk denied reports in June 2004 that Jol was about to become assistant manager of Tottenham Hotspur. Several days later, however, Jol was given the job under Tottenham's new coach, Jacques Santini, having been recruited by Tottenham's sporting director Frank Arnesen. Santini resigned from the manager's job after just 13 games, and on 8 November 2004, Jol was confirmed as his replacement. In his first season in charge, Jol improved their league fortunes and scrapped the defensive nature of play that Santini had instilled. After winning five league games in a row, Tottenham's best run of form since the 1992–1993 season, he won the FA Manager of the Month award in December 2004 and was strongly linked in the press with the then vacant managerial job at Ajax. Jol, however, ruled out moving clubs early. Jol led Tottenham to the verge of European qualification but the season ended with a ninth-place finish in the Premier League after a final day draw at home to Blackburn Rovers. This meant Spurs missed out on the UEFA Cup spot by two points. In August 2005, he signed a new three-year contract with Tottenham.
Tottenham warmed up for the 2005–06 season by winning the pre-season tournament the Peace Cup, which featured such clubs as PSV, Olympique Lyonnais, Boca Juniors; Tottenham defeated Lyon in the final. Although Tottenham went out of both cup competitions at the first hurdle, they never once dropped out of the top six places in the league, and for much of the season, Tottenham sat in fourth place, a UEFA Champions League spot. On the final day of the season, however, Tottenham's squad was struck down by illness and Spurs were defeated by West Ham United, meaning they missed out on Champions League qualification and finished in fifth place. Nevertheless, Jol had led Tottenham to their highest league finish since 1990, which meant they had qualified for the UEFA Cup via the league for the first time since the ban on English clubs playing in Europe was lifted in 1990. The season saw Tottenham concede just 38 league goals, the fewest the club has conceded since 1971.
The 2006–07 season saw Jol end Tottenham's lengthy hoodoo against Chelsea with a win, the first against them in the league since 1990. In the Football League Cup, they were knocked-out in the semi-finals by rivals Arsenal. A 4–0 FA Cup win away to Fulham, however, kick-started a run of form which saw Tottenham take 27 points from their final 12 league games, losing just once. This run saw Spurs surge into fifth place, securing UEFA Cup qualification on the final day of the season, making Jol the first Spurs manager since Keith Burkinshaw to qualify for European football in successive seasons. Tottenham also reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup, losing to the eventual winners in both.
In the summer of 2007, Tottenham signed a number of expensive players spending around £40 million. It has been reported that some of these players were signed on the request of Director of Football Damien Comolli and that Jol was not allowed to select players he wanted to buy, such as Martin Petrov. When the suggestion of selling star striker Dimitar Berbatov arose, Jol claimed, "I'd rather die."
Because of the large amount of money that had been spent, Spurs were expected by the board to challenge for a top four place in the 2007–08 season. After Tottenham lost their opening two games, however, Club Secretary John Alexander and Director Paul Kemsley were photographed in a Spanish hotel with Sevilla FC manager Juande Ramos, who then claimed that Tottenham had made him a "dizzying offer" to become their manager, though this was denied by Tottenham's chairman Daniel Levy. This undermined Jol's position, and he was eventually sacked by the Tottenham board on 25 October 2007 during their 2–1 defeat to Getafe CF in the UEFA Cup. News of the sacking was widely known around the ground before the final whistle, before even Jol had become aware of his fate. Jol confessed that he first became aware of the decision when his nephew told him of a text message he received saying Jol was to leave the job.
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note = (c) = caretaker manager; (s) = secretary-manager; (i) = interim manager