Spanish Press Critical Of Ramos Appointment

• Reuters, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 2:45 PM

The Spanish media has greeted Real Madrid's replacement of Bernd Schuster with Juande Ramos with generally critical commentaries in the wake of the new coach's recent failed stint at Tottenham Hotspur.

Daily sports paper Marca called out Real's president Ramon Calderon and sporting director Predrag Mijatovic, citing "the Kafkaesque sacking of Schuster" as "nothing more than another blunder which joins a long list committed by the club managers, unable to come up with an action plan that is either cheap or effective or even halfway serious."

Daily El Mundo noted that Ramos lost the support of the English players at Tottenham because of his poor command of the language, which may also handicap his rapport with Real's Dutch contingent. "As soon as he left, the team mysteriously started working," it said. "Juande now has his bum on the Real bench and only the gods know whether his resounding failure at Tottenham or his virtuous circle at Sevilla will be repeated."

That success at Sevilla was mostly down to his technical staff, according to Sport. It said Ramos is inheriting an "unbalanced" team that has "a full sick ward and ... various players in the twilight of their careers, including Raul, Guti and Fabio Cannavaro." But his former assistant at Spurs, Gus Poyet, was understandably more upbeat in, writing in El Mundo that "Real Madrid will never have a problem attacking. Juande knows very well how to identify issues that need resolving, always putting the team before individuals."

 

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