“I always think of David Moyes and Everton,” Martin Jol, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, said. “He had a very good year, then the next year was horrendous, but nobody said anything. And now they have a good team and are challenging for the top six. So I just think, leave me be.”

Yet when did moderation hold hands with modern football? On Friday, a leading bookmaker temporarily erased Jol’s name from the betting on the next Premier League manager to be dismissed after taking a series of large wagers that its sources identified as too close to home for comfort.

Reports in Spanish newspapers say a delegation of Tottenham executives, including Paul Kemsley, the vice-chairman, met Juande Ramos, Seville coach, last week. There is also talk of conflict between Jol and Damien Comolli, the director of football and a close ally of Kemsley.

Daniel Levy, the chairman, is insistent that his two-tier management structure works, despite every departing coach saying publicly, or privately, that it was problematic. In a show-down, it is said, as architect of the scheme Levy would side with Comolli. The greatest hindrance to Tottenham’s Champions League ambitions may be the politics of the club itself.

If the directors wished to take the temperature in the dressing-room, it was recorded when Tottenham raced to a three-goal lead in 14 minutes on Saturday, aided by calamitous Derby County defending. The supporters were volubly behind the manager, too, which leaves the directors, whose fear of underachievement after another summer of spending can almost be detected nasally.

History is not on Jol’s side. In the past ten years, on three occasions, Tottenham were the first club to change their manager: Gerry Francis in 1997, Christian Gross in 1998 and Glenn Hoddle in 2003. Jacques Santini lasted only until November 5, 2004, but Newcastle United beat Tottenham to the trigger that year.

“The board has never personally told me I have to break into the top four,” Jol said, “and betting on me to get the sack, I don’t think so – but you never know. I thought there were whispers last year, but there are whispers at every club. I’m the same as maybe seven people in every ten – I can’t take f***ing criticism.

“As a manager, you want time to build a team. Look at Arsenal and Liverpool, how many of my players would get in for them? If it is six or seven, then we must be fourth. If it is one or two, then we are overachieving. In 25 years, no Tottenham manager has had the number of points we have won over two seasons. None of them.”

It is the three from nine in this campaign, though, that has caused Jol’s present condition and, considering the first crisis club of the season would surely have made the top bid on eBay for a home fixture against Derby to alleviate the pressure, few were fooled by the ease of this victory. Steed Malbranque scored twice inside six minutes, Jermaine Jenas scored a fine individual goal to crown a man-of-the-match display and Jol sensibly kept Darren Bent on the field in the hope that he would score his opener for the season, which he did.

Billy Davies, the Derby manager, described the match as a learning experience, but, unless his team close down good teams with greater haste, it could turn into more of an education. “It would have been a horrendous situation had I lost this game,” Jol said. “But I am good at statistics, too. We had no back-to-back losses at the club last year for the first time in 55 years. My record is good. So leave me be.” It is not the compilers of record books that he has to worry about, sadly.

Tottenham Hotspur 4 Malbranque 2, 6, Jenas 14, Bent 80
Derby County 0

How they rated

4-4-2 P Robinson 6 P Chimbonda 6 R Rocha 6 A Gardner 7 Lee Young Pyo 7 W Routledge 6 J Jenas 9 T Huddlestone 8 S Malbranque 7 R Keane 7 D Bent 8 Substitutes A Taarabt (for Routledge, 70min 5), J Defoe (for Keane, 75), D Zokora (for Chimbonda, 81) Not used R Cerny, P Stalteri

4-4-2 S Bywater 5 T Mears 4 D Leacock 5 D Moore Y 5 J McEveley 5 C Fagan Y 4 M Oakley 5 A Todd 5 S Pearson 5 S Howard Y 5 R Earnshaw 5 Substitutes A Griffin Y (for Mears, 32min, 6), G Teale (for Todd, 46, 7) Not used L Price, D Jones, B Feilhaber

Referee C Foy
Attendance 35,600