Sacking me would harm Spurs - Jol

Tottenham manager Martin Jol has warned the Spurs board it would be a mistake to end his tenure at White Hart Lane.

Speculation continues over Jol's position at Spurs, despite their 2-0 Carling Cup win over Middlesbrough.

Jol told BBC Radio 5live: "The fans know how difficult it is if they change management again, they know you could easily go back for years.

"I hope people are realistic - you can get anyone in the world to come, but to do better you must finish fourth."

Jol's position has come under heavy scrutiny after a poor start to the season, with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy moving to deny reports that he and Jol had agreed a compensation package on Tuesday.

Jol continued: "The speculation isn't a nice position to be in, but I can't do anything about it.

"The continuity is important - we were fifth two years in-a-row, I don't think anybody else could do any better.

"The continuity of the club is important and we did that here with my staff over the last couple of years.

"We won a lot of points, had nine wins in Europe and got back into Europe via the league, which probably didn't happen for 25 years or so.

"So the fans realise and they appreciate my work and that is a good feeling."

Spurs have had a dismal start to their Premier League campaign, picking up only five points from seven games, but Jol was delighted after seeing them beat Boro with goals from Gareth Bale and Tom Huddlestone.

"I thought we played very well, it was a very good performance, though not particularly better than we have been playing," he added.

"We created four or five chances in the first half and more in the second, but if you don't kill opponents off then you must always be wary."

Jol's decision to take off Jermain Defoe with 21 minutes left was greeted with boos by the White Hart Lane faithful and the striker reacted angrily.

But Jol says the decision was vindicated as his replacement Robie Keane went on to set up the first goal.

"People care about Jermain, I care about him as well," said Jol. "But I took him off to try and change the game and sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't - this time it did.

"At the end everybody is happy because we won but it's not what you want, because I feel more for the people coming on than Jermain, because he had his chance today.

"He was sharp and he will be important in the future as Dimitar Berbatov will be and Darren Bent as well - though Darren was kept on the bench and will not be happy.

"But Robbie Keane is always very good as a substitute as well, he's proved that in the last couple of years that he can change games and he did it again."