The usually reserved Martin Jol has hit back at claims from Bobby Zamora that the majority of Fulham players do not like him by stating that the attack is just a sign of "sour grapes."
Speaking ahead of Sunday's away game at Southampton, Jol was asked for a response to the unprovoked verbal attack from Queens Park Ranger's Zamora and was more than willing to give his own version of events.
"It is probably sour grapes," Jol said.
"I think nothing is what it seems. Everyone knows me. The players know me so one player will say this, another player will say that.
"It doesn't matter. I don't care. For me, the most important thing is we get the results so you will have to ask the players."
Using thinly veiled terms, Jol went on to suggest that Zamora simply wasn't putting the effort in where it was required.
"If they do well and work hard, I try to get a good relationship with them. If not, I don't."
Revelations came out about a training bust up between the pair, not long after Jol's appointment as manager, and the Dutchman thinks he knows exactly where the news came from.
"Insiders here know that this probably started after two weeks of me being here.
"There was a few leaks in the paper and I asked him and he said 'no, it wasn't me'. I knew it was him and his agent 100 percent.
"He said 'no, it wasn't me, I hate the press'."
Jol wasn't going to stop there, however, and went on to highlight the striker's deficiencies in training.
"He hated defence and later said he hated crosses as well and that was the moment I thought 'maybe it is better to sell' and that is what we did."
"With Bobby it started after a couple of weeks. Everybody knew and now he has moved on. I don't think it is typically English to make comments after a year or eight months.
And, to add the icing to the cake, the Fulham boss is palpably proud of the forward line he has now assembled at Craven Cottage.
"We moved on and it was not easy because I had to get another number nine. We did because [Pavel] Pogrebnyak scored as many goals in a couple of weeks as my other strikers did in six months.
"Later we got [Dimitar] Berbatov, who was probably our best signing ever, so people who know us, know Fulham and know me, knew it was quite a challenge here. In hindsight, you could say we managed to do well."