Last Updated: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:11
Martin Jol claims he knew his gamble to sign Pavel Pogrebynyak would pay off for Fulham 10 minutes after seeing him in training.
The Cottagers chief snapped up the Russian hitman on a six-month loan deal from German Bundesliga outfit Stuttgart during the January transfer window as a replacement for QPR-bound Bobby Zamora.
And, while Pogrebynyak's career had gone off the boil in Germany, Jol listened to the advice of his fellow Dutch compatriots, Russia boss Dick Advocaat and his predecessor Guus Hiddink, who both rated the player very highly.
Jol saw evidence of Pogrebynyak's potential himself when he fired in a hat-trick within minutes of his first training session with the Cottagers first team.
And, as the player grabbed his second goal in as many games in Saturday's win at QPR, Jol told the Chronicle: "It was a risk (to sign Pogrebynyak from Stuttgart) but after the first training session he scored a hat-trick in 10 minutes.
"Before, he scored one in two in his own country and he has 45 caps. But Stuttgart had four or five strikers and when he wasn't playing well they took him off.
"I told him you will play games here and that's what he needs. He's a real number nine.
"These players from abroad sometimes need weeks, maybe months to settle in, so to see what Pavel's doing is very good."
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