Canizares: Tottenham Didn't Understand Juande Ramos

The former Valencia and Spain goalkeeper, Santiago Canizares, believes Juande Ramos was never properly understood at Tottenham Hotspur during his ill-fated sojourn in English football.

Ramos, who this week was appointed as head coach of Spanish giants Real Madrid, was unceremoniously sacked by Spurs in October, after leading the team to just two points from their first eight Premier League games.

The Spaniard was only out of work for six weeks, benefitting from Real Madrid's dismissal this week of Bernd Schuster. And Canizares, speaking at an event organised by Ford's feelfootball.com website, said Ramos will fare better coaching back in Spain.

"The British mentality is very different to the one Spanish people have and when he tried to introduce his methods at Tottenham, he wasn't able to get the players to believe in him," the retired keeper said of Ramos.

"A coach comes in with different methods and especially in a different country, in this case Juande in England.

"He obviously tried to introduce his methods and his way of working, but sometimes that clashes directly with the mentality of the players."

Canizares remains convinced that Ramos is a top coach, and that he will rebuild his reputation at the Bernabeu.

"I think he's a coach who works really well, who has good people around him," he said.

"He has a good team of professionals to work on all aspects of preparation and tactics, all of that's very important and that's how I judge a good coach, by the people he has around him."

The former Spurs boss will be trying to get a result for Real Madrid in El Clasico on Saturday, when they travel to the Camp Nou to face their bitter rivals, Barcelona.

Madrid are currently nine points adrift of Barca, and Canizares commented: "Everyone says that Barcelona will win the game because they can see that Barca are superior to Real Madrid on all levels at the moment," he said.

"Barcelona should win, but they will only do so if they have respect for their rivals."

Mark Hinton, Goal.com







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