Jol ready for life after Zamora

02 February 2012 07:16

Martin Jol believes Fulham are well prepared for life without Bobby Zamora despite struggling in front of goal against West Brom.

The 31-year-old striker left for west London rivals QPR, leaving the home side bereft of attacking ideas as they were held to a 1-1 draw.

"You would have to ask Bobby [why he left] but for us it was the best we could do," Jol said. "It was a decent offer and we decided to accept it. This was around for months. He wanted that move."

He added: "Of course you want to keep your players on board, especially in this transfer window. But, on the other hand, we had to make a decision and this is not something that has happened over the last couple of days.

"I think the timing was probably ideal because Bobby left and we could get Pavel [Pogrebnyak] in.

"Last year there was a different scenario as I wanted Andre-Pierre Gignac in and he didn't come. Now we had a candidate for Bobby and he came."

With Pogrebnyak not registered in time and both Andrew Johnson and Mousa Dembele injured, Clint Dempsey started in attack.

Albion counterpart Roy Hodgson struck a relieved figure after securing a point at his former stomping ground.

"I was really quite pleased with the performance if you take away the last five or six minutes, where I thought we did our best to let them back into the game," Hodgson said.

"For a large period I thought we were fully in control, to be quite frank."

Source: PA