Fulham manager Martin Jol has backed signing Stanislav Manolev to star in the Barclays Premier League - despite the defender once being labelled as 'the worst right back in Europe'.
Former Holland star Rene van der Gijp, who is now a popular pundit on Dutch channel RTL, infamously applied the tag to the 27-year-old live on air in 2009, later calling him a 'blind horse'.
Manolev has joined Fulham on loan from PSV Eindhoven until the end of the season and Jol, who was forced to act after right-back Stephen Kelly departed for Reading earlier in the month, expects the Bulgaria international to prove Van der Gijp wrong.
He said: 'We had to come up with something after Stephen Kelly left and Manolev played almost 30 international games (29) so that tells you enough.
'If you look at games from less than four weeks ago he has been the man of the match.
'So he is not that strong now, or a world star in Holland, because he is not playing so much but I know for a fact that he is better than they give him credit for.'