Ramos: I don't fear Arsenal
Juande Ramos is unlikely to be scared by anything in tomorrow's
north London derby after his most terrifying moment in
football.
The Tottenham boss was knocked unconscious when a fan threw a
bottle filled with cement at his head when in charge of Sevilla in
their cup derby with Real Betis last March.
Ramos was out cold for 11 minutes, had to be carried off the pitch
and there were horrific scenes as paramedics frantically tried to
revive him.
The incident happened nine months ago and, although he cannot
remember much about it, Ramos is unlikely to feel intimidated by
facing Spurs' bitter rivals Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
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"I was knocked out but I want to forget that now. Somebody threw
something at me, it hit me on the head and knocked me out,"
recalled Ramos.
"I don't expect it to ever happen again, not this weekend or next
weekend. I hope it never happens again on a football pitch. The
following week I was absolutely fine. The match was heated but I
never could imagine something like that could happen. I don't
remember anything after being struck, nor what happened on the
pitch."
Ramos is used to fierce rivalries from his days in charge of
Sevilla, but in north London the fixture has suffered in recent
years due to the Gunners' dominance.
Tottenham have not beaten Arsenal for eight years. And Arsene
Wenger's success has only turned up the pressure on Spurs bosses.
Glenn Hoddle, Jacques Santini and Martin Jol have all paid the
price for failing to break the Gunners' domination.
Ramos is the latest in a long line charged with stepping out of
Wenger's shadow and bringing some silverware to White Hart Lane.
But that task does not frighten Ramos even though he knows his
progress so far, after two months at the helm, will be gauged by
how his team fare against their neighbours.
"I don't understand the correlation between the problems previous
managers have had here and the success of Arsenal," said
Ramos.
"We cannot worry about what other teams are doing, we need to focus
on ourselves.
"There's a big difference in the league table at the moment, but we
are not as far behind as we were before. Little by little we will
close that gap and that will come by getting results.
"We know it's a number of years since we beat Arsenal, but we have
to try our best to get the right result.
"Arsenal play good football, are very attractive to watch and are
the leaders.
"We are playing very effectively at the moment in terms of what we
need to get results. We are playing well, more positively and are
improving, which shows in the results. "I don't think it's a
psychological barrier at all.
Arsenal have a great team with a big squad and that is the reason,
but whoever is the best and most powerful team on the day will
win."
Ramos believes he is introducing the attacking flair football that
Tottenham fans want and brought him so much success at
Sevilla.
He added: "I don't like to compare ourselves with Arsenal and
myself with Arsene Wenger, even though I congratulate him for the
job he has done.
"In the last few games we are showing we are getting to grips with
the style we want here. At Sevilla I had a way of playing with a
certain type of player so we would like to create that again. But
the most important thing is results and getting points."
Ramos has yet to fully master English, although he says neither he
nor new England boss Fabio Capello - who he regards as a close
friend - will be held back by the language barrier.
Although he reckons it also has its advantages, saying: "I can't
understand a word fans are saying!"
