Juande Ramos was recently asked "why do you think it didn't work for you at Tottenham?" He smile and said "I have my own views on that which I would not want to talk about in public". Now, one of the interpretations of that might be that he is legally or contractually bound not to speak about it. But surely nothing Ramos could have said could speak louder than his performance since leaving Spurs.

On 8th December, Ramos took over Real Madrid, a troubled club with well documented dressing room politics, difficult and politically fraught club hierarchy, under-performing stars and a 6th in the league tables, Madrid have won 10 out of 10 games, currently stand at number 2 in the table and have cut Barcelona's lead from 12 points to 4.

Yes Madrid were outplayed by Liverpool, but in Benitez, they were facing a strong Liverpool team (last year's Semifinalists) possibly the best cup-tactician going and there's still the second leg to play.

But the impact of Madrid's surging run has been most directly felt by their league rivals - Barcelona, who seem to have hit a few cracks after a start that people thought might see them win the title by March!

By contrast, since Ramos left Spurs, they have played 19 league games, in which they've totalled 29 points. They now lie 13th in the table - a lofty position by their standards this season.

The trigger for the sacking of Ramos's predecessor - Berndt Schuster - was his statement before the El Classico that "nobody can go to the Nou Camp and come away with a win" at the time. When the same question was posed to Ramos, he was tactful enough to suggest that Madrid would go looking for a win. They weren't outplayed but lost 2-0.

In one sense Ramos's task at Madrid was simpler - to make a team out of already high quality components. With Schneider, Robben, Guti, Raul, Higuain, Sergio Ramos and the rest of the assembled stellar talent at his disposal, Ramos could start the process of forging them into a winning unit immediately.

Redknapp insists that he had to rebuild the Spurs team he inherited from Ramos. Ramos in turn wanted to overhaul the team he took over. Amongst the rumours that circulated was the accusation that the strict diet that Ramos was imposing on his team was too stringent and the players were going hungry!

Whateve he's done with the diet at Madrid, he has certainly delivered the results. Notably under his guidance, Raul - one of the most politcal players has started to play as a linking player in front of the midfield. Robben has flourished, scoring and making goals. Huntelaar has found his scoring form. Diarra and Gago are proving to be effective as a defensive unit. And players coming into the team are doing their job.

Ramos did the hard work first - by fixing the Madrid defence. Iker Casillas, Pepe, Gabrielle Heinze, Ramos, ....all good players but Madrid were conceding soft goals and even Casillas was looking shakey after letting in a goal too many. Risking the wrath of the Bernabeu, Ramos focused on getting the defence sorted first - teaching the team to walk before they could fly.

He has mostly used a 4-2-3-1 formation with Gago and Diaara as the defensive midfielders, and Robben, Higuain, Van Der Vaart or Schneider. And with the depth of squad at his disposal, the absence of prolific scorers such as Van Nistelrooy hasn't been felt.

In all probability, what has happened to Barcelona is just a blip and Madrid themselves are due for a dip in form. But So far, you cannot fault Ramos for his performance and if nothing else, he's made the La Liga much more interesting than it was looking earlier.

Ramos managed 2 points from 8 games in his Spurs spell. That scared the Spurs hierarchy to sack him, along with the backroom staff of Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez. Sometimes things just don't work out. But I'm sure the Spurs hierarchy are also looking at Ramos now and scratching their heads about what exactly did go wrong.

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