Winning Formula?

By Costas Georgiou

So many pundits over the past few days have given their opinion on the appointment of Juande Ramos. I can’t give my opinion as I just don’t know enough about the man to comment. What I can do though, is list the pros and cons printed by the media.


Pros

• We know that Ramos has worked with a Sporting Director in the past, both at Real Betis and most recently, at Sevilla. Working with Damien Comolli shouldn’t be a problem whatsoever as Ramos is ‘Comolli’s man’. Jol unfortunately, was Arnesen’s appointment, which may have led to the many conflicts between Comolli and Martin.


• Ramos is known to work his players exceptionally hard. This continued in Monday’s first training session with the players.



• He’s a winner. Our new coach has proved that he can bring in the trophies without spending big.



• He demands respect from his players. We have all heard the incident of when he subbed a player, failing to bring on a replacement so as to give his team a lesson in being complacent.



• The structure of the teams Ramos fields has never changed. He doesn’t play a ridged 4-4-2, but rather, allows his players the opportunity to express themselves. Ramos does use two defensive central midfielders, accompanied by left and right wingers. He also employs a wing overlapping system which allows the fullbacks to bomb forward.



• Ramos certainly knows how to get the best out of his players. Just look at what he’s done to Kanoute.

Cons

• Juande Ramos has not remained in charge of a club for more than two seasons.


• He does speak English, but not at a level that is required to get his views over to the players, although he did state otherwise in the press conference yesterday.


• Media shy – Ramos doesn’t have the media flair that Jol does and is a fairly reserved coach.

I am sure that there are many other pros and cons that will come to the limelight in due time. At this moment, I am excited about the future of our club. There’s no point in reviewing the past. Lets all look to the future, a future under the leadership of an excellent coach that is capable of bringing our great club success.