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HSV Hamburg needs a leader and Martin
Jol knows just who
Tuesday 18 November 2008
Now that the bridal days of Martin
Jol and Hamburg are over and it's clear that HSV are
not going to march to the German league title just like
that the club's management are looking for the one reinforcement
that is needed most.
Away defeats to Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim,
Hannover and Berlin have shown just what Hamburg lack:
a leading personality who takes the team by the hand
when things are not going smoothly, a man who stands
up and fights when the team are crumbling under the
force of an opponent.
And Martin Jol knows just who could
be that player for them.
He's Dutch, he already plays in
the Bundesliga and he is no longer needed at his current
club.
His name is Mark van Bommel.
Although captain at Bayern Munich
the former PSV star is not the first on the team sheet
any longer and has actually been benched regularly this
season by Juergen Klinsmann.
Jol didn't want to say that he
is after the player, but what he wants lay hidden in
what he didn't say.
"Van Bommel plays for Bayern
and I don't want to make public remarks about players
at other clubs. That would only unease my own players,"
Jol said.
And then added with a big Martin
Jol smile: "But he is a free agent this summer,
no?"
Jol has previously been full of
praise of the Dutch midfielder and hailed his experience
and his winner mentality and called him a type of player
any team needs to have success.
But if Jol wants to sign Van Bommel
he will find there is stiff competition as PSV Eindhoven
and Schalke 04 also would like to sign the Dutch international.
The man himself remains calm under
all the attention for his imminent future and said he
hopes to meet with Bayern's management within a few
weeks.
"I assume that they tell me
whether they want to go on with me or not. But it is
odd that the club are uncertain whether they want to
extend with their captain.
At HSV Van Bommel will be welcomed
with arms wide open and the club will certainly not
shy away from the fact that he is described as 'a difficult
character'.
The same was said about goal keeper
Frank Rost before he moved to the North of Germany.
Rost has turned out to be a golden
choice for Hamburg.
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