From loser to winner as Juande Ramos goes from Tottenham failure to try to be Real Madrid saviour

A couple of days ago I was writing an article about the biggest winners and losers of 2008 in preparation for the end of the year. Amongst the biggest losers I included Juande Ramos. I wrote that he had gone from hero to villain over a very short space of time during the year and was definitely one of the biggest losers.

Losers

Now, the fifty-four year old manager has been appointed the boss of Real Madrid. That’s hardly the role of a loser now is it? I’ll have to rewrite my other article, although as I also had Real Madrid as one of the biggest losers of the year (falling so far behind Barcelona, failing in Europe, not getting Cristiano Ronaldo, etc) maybe the appointment might not turn out to be all that it should be.

So why, up until yesterday, did I think that Ramos was a big loser in 2008. Well, on 24th February this year, Tottenham lifted their first trophy in nine years when they won the Carling Cup at Wembley at Chelsea. Juande Ramos had been in post at the club for around three months and was hailed as a hero.

Fever pitch

The run of poor league form after the Wembley triumph was written off as a reaction to their great success. The Summer came and hopes at White Hart Lane reached their usual fever pitch, although with Ramos at the helm and with a trophy under their belts, the optimism seemed to be a little more justified than it has been in the past.

It all started to go wrong during the Summer when a vast amount of money was spent on players, but none of them were replacements for Dimitar Berbatov who everyone in the world, apart it seems from Juande Ramos, knew was going to leave the club.

Urgent

Then Robbie Keane left for Liverpool and the need for a new striker or two became urgent. Still no replacement was lined up.

When Berbatov did eventually leave, a few minutes before the transfer deadline, Ramos was left saying that it had come as a surprise and left him no time to find a replacement. It was a shocking admission from a man who suddenly seemed to have no idea what was going on around him.

Disastrous

The first few games of the season were disastrous for Tottenham and with the club rock bottom of the Premier League table with just two points from eight games a 2-1 defeat at Stoke City proved to be the last straw for the Tottenham board and Ramos was sacked. The fact that new manager Harry Redknapp has won nine of twelve games since he took over does tend to show that the pre-season optimism was justified, but the manager, Ramos, had messed it all up.

So to go so quickly from hero to zero quite clearly made Juande Ramos one of the year’s biggest losers. Then, yesterday, Real Madrid unsurprisingly sacked the under performing Bernd Schuster and then somewhat surprisingly replaced him with Ramos. Just so that my article could be ruined!

Doubts dispelled

If there was any doubt that Schuster would get the sack after this weekend’s defeat at home to Sevilla left Real in fifth place, nine points behind Barcelona, then his comments that there was no way they could beat their bitter rivals at the Camp Nou next week, surely dispelled them.

Madrid Director of Sport, Pedja Mijatovic said,

“We spoke to Schuster this morning about all the difficulties over the past few months. We came to the mutual agreement to take this decision. He took the decision well. I have to take the opportunity to thank Bernd Schuster for the work he did at Real Madrid. He did an excellent job last season to win the title and the Spanish Supercopa.”

Ramos, who has taken on the role just until the end of this season said,

“I would like to thank the board for their confidence. I face this job with excitement. It’s everybody’s dream. I hope I don’t let anyone down and that I achieve the successes that this club has set for this season. In most of my previous jobs I have had short contracts. We came to a quick agreement and I’m delighted. If I’m happy at the end of the season then I might extend the contract. Both sides are free to see what happens.”

Prior to going to Tottenham, Ramos had led Sevilla to back to back Uefa Cup wins in 2006 and 2007 and his reputation in Spain has not been tarnished too badly by the bizarre goings-on at White Hart Lane since last February.

Tough

Ramos will find things tough at the Bernabeu as he will inherit a team severely lacking in confidence. His first game in charge will be Wednesday’s Champions League match at home to Zenit St Petersburg and then it is El Classico at the weekend. He will also inherit a squad of walking and not walking wounded players. This week it was announced that Mahamadou Diarra will miss between six and nine months with a knee injury. He joins Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gabriel Heinze, Pepe, Wesley Sneijder, Miguel Torres and Ruben de la Red on the treatment table.

Although things will be tough, Juande Ramos has proved himself as a manager and he still has an amazing amount of talent at his disposal. If he can get that talent to play to the best of their abilities as a team, then they will challenging again on all fronts soon enough. If he can’t, he may just have to go back to being a loser.

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