Jol doubts Hughes' ambitious plan

Jol defended his club's ambition (Getty Images)

Mark Hughes' idea of ambition at Queen's Park Rangers has been questioned by Martin Jol, the man who succeeded the Welshman at Fulham.

Hughes left Fulham last summer complaining that the club failed to match his aspirations, then reiterated his desire for upward mobility when he was unveiled as manager at QPR earlier this week.

But Jol believes Fulham under owner Mohamed al-Fayed has a lot more going for it than their west London neighbours at Loftus Road under Tony Fernandes. "It is not always about money if you are talking about ambition," Jol said.

"In my opinion we are ambitious, but last time he was here he said maybe Fulham are not. That is is his opinion. Fulham played in a European final and that is not easy to achieve.

"We feel that we are pretty ambitions but, of course, if you look at QPR and it is true what they say in the press that they have a lot of money to spend.

"When I came here I knew Fulham were ambitious, so I never said to the chairman 'I want this or that'," he added. "I knew he was ambitious, because you can see from the amount he has spent.

"I don't think we will buy players at 10 to 15 million, but we still have people like Moussa Dembélé and Bryan Ruiz. They could play in any team in the League.

"Our ambition is to be a very good club in the Premier League and hopefully in the next couple of years what I would say nicer things, maybe win something."

Jol also questioned Hughes' proclamation that he wanted to build a legacy at Loftus Road. "He is very brave to say that," Jol said. "If you look at all the clubs he has managed, it has been for two years – at the most.

"I could easily say I wanted to go to Barcelona, but I came here because it is a good club and I felt that it wasn't five or 10 minutes. It was months, or maybe a year to make the decision.

"QPR came up from the lower League so they are quite ambitious. It is the same as all the other clubs with [rich] owners like Malaga or Manchester City.

"I think we are more steady. Of course we have been playing in the Premier League now for years so it is a different club."

Fulham have rejected an offer believed to be in the region of £2.5m from Blackburn Rovers for striker Andrew Johnson. The 30-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season.

On his hopes of keeping both Johnson and England striker Bobby Zamora, Jol added: "I need my strikers, otherwise I will have to play up front."