Tottenham's Jol on borrowed time as Ramos stands by

Despite the embarrassment of last month's flirtation with Ramos, the Spaniard remains keen to accept a massive pay rise and move to White Hart Lane.

"He has said he's ready when we are," a Tottenham source told Sportsmail.

Scroll down for more

For now, Jol is being given the opportunity to arrest a slide that continued with a crushing 3-1 home defeat in Saturday's north London derby against Arsenal.

After the game, officials at the club said privately that the Dutchman has until next month's international break to turn things around.

Before then they face three Premier League games - away to Bolton and Liverpool and at home to Aston Villa - considered to be the most important.

Tottenham also entertain Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup and face Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus in two legs of the UEFA Cup.

Failure to guide Tottenham clear of the bottom three - they dropped to 17th in the table after a fourth defeat in six games - will almost certainly see Jol sacked.

Jurgen Klinsmann has been identified as another managerial target but last month's not-so-secret meeting with Ramos did nothing to put off Tottenham.

Only circumstances at the time prevented them from appointing him immediately.

While it became difficult for Ramos with the sudden death of one of his players, Antonio Puerta, and the fact the club were about to meet AC Milan in the European Super Cup, Tottenham feared they would invite heavy criticism for sacking a manager so early in the season after a summer that had seen them spend £40million.

By mid-October, though, the switch would be more acceptable to both sides.

Jol, however, dismisses such talk. "I don't think the board is a problem," he said before being asked if he thought he would still be manager in six weeks.

"I remember seeing a paper in 2005 that asked how long I would be here. And I've been here for another two years so I think so, yes."

He believes the club's fans remain behind him. "I feel there are two worlds here in London," he said.

"There is you guys and then there are the supporters who read your papers. It's amazing. Although they read your papers they are still backing me and that's a great feeling.

It's probably the first time in history over here and it feels great."

Most of his players are also behind him and Paul Robinson, the England goalkeeper who criticised the club's treatment of Jol, said: "People are going to talk because of what's happened but we've got a tight ship in the dressingroom, we're just keeping everything in-house and we're going to dig out the results for the manager over the next few weeks."

Jol might struggle to rely on the support of Jermain Defoe, though, after the striker was not even selected on the bench on Saturday.

"In Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov, Darren Bent and Jermain I have four players for two positions," said Jol with a shrug of the shoulders."