When Martin Jol trudged through the arrivals hall of the O.R. Tambo airport on Thursday morning he was not expecting to be met by Shaun Bartlett, who Jol knows all too well as the two have an old rivalry which spans the better part of three years.

The story goes something like this after a dozen or so games during the 2004 – 2005 season Martin Jol replaced Frenchmen Jacques Santini as coach of Tottenham Hotspurs, and in his first game in charge Spurs hosted Shaun Bartlett and his former team Charlton Athletic at White Hart Lane.

It was an afternoon that Bartlett and Jol will not forget as the Chiefs striker played a leading role in guiding his team to victory in a five goal thriller, when Chiefs meet Spurs on Saturday Jol will be keeping a close eye on Bartlett. The Chiefs striker on the other hand will be hoping to once again give Martin Jol and his team a lot of problems, as he aims to be a handful and get amongst the goals on Saturday.

From hero to villain in one afternoon

Since taking over during the 2004 – 2005 season Martin Jol has turned things around at Spurs and has become a legend at the club in the past few years, his first game at the helm will best be remembered for the fact that it produced five goals and Spurs ended up losing. For Bartlett though the game holds a special place in his heart as the Chiefs striker explains further, “I remember when Martin took over at Spurs I was at Charlton at the time and were to play them in his first game in charge, for me the game remains fresh in my memory”. Bartlett had White Hart Lane in silence on that Saturday afternoon “the game being a London derby and all we wanted to win it, I managed to give us the lead and scored another goal from a free kick. The Stadium was quiet for most of the game they did eventually equalize and then I was fortunate enough to lay on a third goal for Charlton, but every story has a twist”.

Shaun’s afternoon was not complete as he adds “there had to be one more piece of drama in the story line and that was that I got a red card later in the game, it somewhat dampened what had until that point been a really special game the thing is that we still won the game”. With another meeting against Martin Jol and Spurs Shaun is looking towards repeating most of what happened against Spurs back in 2004-2005, saying “should I play on Saturday I will be aiming to get goals against Martin Jol again and hopefully this time stay on the pitch for the full ninety minutes”.

Bent friend

Apart from renewing his acquaintance with a number of the White Hart Lane brigade over the next week, Shaun was particularly pleased to meet his former Charlton Athletic strike partner and close friend and new Tottenham Hotspur signing Darren Bent. Shaun and Bent who played together at Charlton during the 2005 – 2006 had the opportunity to share a few words on Thursday morning, Shaun said after his brief meeting with his former team mate. Shaun said “Darren and I had a good understanding when I was at Charlton and we regularly speak to each other, it was good to finally meet in Johannesburg as he had always wanted to visit me here”.

There will be no love lost when Shaun and Darren face each other on Saturday Shaun has sent out a note of caution to his Amakhosi team mates, when said “Darren is a deadly finisher and over all a great player it is a certainty that he will one for us to watch on Saturday”. Once the games are over Shaun is looking forward to hosting Darren and showing him around the sites of Johannesburg, first things first though Shaun wants to pull one over Darren and lead Chiefs to victory on Saturday.