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Jol & Hamburg: love at first sight
New Hamburger SV manager Martin Jol
has won the hearts of the Hamburg board, players and
fans by storm.
Welt
Tuesday 19 August 2008
Since Martin Jol started at HSV,
early June, he must feel like a rockstar.
After each training fans are waiting
in line, asking for autographs, pull out their cell
phones and ask for a picture with the Dutchman.
"Sometimes it takes me half
an hour to complete the short walk from the pitch to
the dressing rooms," the 52-year-old says.
He is not used to being so close
to the fans, as in England professional football happens
away from the peering eyes of the fans, in the tightly
sealed off estates of the clubs.
But Jol has excepted the peculiarities
of the north German club from the beginning.
"That's how it is in the Bundesliga,"
and so he takes time out for the fans after each training
session.
"We want to make our fans
happy," he says, and he proves it both on and off
the pitch.
He took the club by storm with
that motto.
"I just love the guy,"
says club president Horst Becker.
"He's an open, relaxed kinda
guy."
Where his predecessor Huub Stevens
shied away from public appearances, Jol seeks the contact
with the fans.
After the final whistle of Friday's
opener against Bayern Munich Jol walked onto the field,
hugged each player and then joined his players as they
went over to the Gästekurve of the Allianz-Arena,
to thank the traveling Hamburg fans, handblowing kisses
at them.
Jol and HSV - it's love at first
sight.
The new coach has all it takes
to be the favorite of the crowd, that much is clear
already.
And in the game against Bayern,
known to be the standard of all things in German football,
the team showed that Jol is on the right track to put
the club back at the top sportswise.
The Dutchman oozes calmness, determination
and self-confidence and he wants to transmit these qualities
to his players.
After the game in Munich the Hamburg
management laded the new man on the bridge with compliments.
"One could see the handwriting
of the coach," said Sportdirektor Dietmar
Beiersdorfer and so made Jol the biggest compliment
available for a football teacher.
And the players also felt fit as
fiddle under the direction of the former Tottenham manager.
"He demands of us that we
bravely move forward. That is fun - and when you have
fun you often are successful," German international
Piotr Trochowski said.
Before the start of the season
Hamburg were the Bundesliga's biggest question mark
Some experts predicted the team
would struggle after the departure of successful coach
Huub Stevens and playmaker Rafael van der Vaart.
But after the show in Munich many
will have Hamburg in their book of candidates to win
the league.
"HSV showed us how quick you
can be on the change-over and be creative playing forward,"
Munich coach Juergen Klinsman said.
His colleague Thomas Schaaf was
impressed after he had seen the TV-highlights: "That
was a fine display by Hamburg."
So HSV are reckoned with at the
top of the Bundesliga, no less because the club's management
are working on some real reinforcements.
For starters they presented Mladen
Petric - a player on Jol's wish list - on Sunday.
"I am very happy that we can
add such a great professional to our squad," Jol
said.
"When you have the chance
to sign such a great player you don't have think twice.
It was a good deal and we have surprised some people
with it."
The new signing will join the club
on Thursday after playing for his country on Wednesday.
"When Mladen is fit he will
be with the squad for Saturday's game against Karlsruhe,"
Jol ensured, as he has big plans for the 27-year-old.
"He is a very good player,
dedicated, productive, strong at set pieces. Mladen
has qualities that we need in this squad."
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