For just over a year, Martin Jol was the manager at Ajax for the 2009-10 season and the first half of the following campaign.
Never managing to win the Eredivisie, he did, however, lead the club to a Dutch cup success in his first season, but perhaps one of his biggest contributions was to give Christian Eriksen his professional debut.
Throwing him in at the deep end in a 1-1 draw against NAC Breda in January 2010, Jol saw the talent in a player who would eventually become a talisman at one of his own former clubs: Tottenham.
Eriksen moved to Spurs three years later for around £13m, where he would go on to play for six and a half years before being transferred in January 2020 to Inter.
Things haven’t gone all that well for the Dane since his move to Italy, with Antonio Conte not managing to find a way to get the best out of his new acquisition as of yet.
It’s not exactly been smooth sailing for Tottenham either, as José Mourinho’s side might have won the first three games after his departure, but subsequently lost the following four before football was suspended.
Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, Martin Jol revealed he predicted this and warned the Spurs chairman not to let the Denmark international go.
He said: “There are many players at Inter in his position: if you think he is the best, then he has to play. If he is just one of the 24, then this is a problem. I always said to the Tottenham president, Daniel Levy, ‘if you sell him, it will be a problem’, because Christian was the leader and the extra man for Spurs.
“Now he can be that at Inter: Conte is a top manager. He will know how best to use him.”
