Juande Ramos had bigger problems at Spurs than dry chicken – Pascal Chimbonda

Pascal Chimbonda has spoken about his experience working under much-maligned former Spurs boss, Juande Ramos, revealing that he had a bigger issue with the Spaniard than his infamous dietary regulations.

Juande Ramos’s dietary restrictions were unpopular at Tottenham

Ramos was the last manager to taste success at Tottenham, leading the club to the League Cup win back in 2008, but apart from that one highlight, his time at N17 turned out to be a disaster.

It is well documented that Ramos brought in draconian dietary regulations at Tottenham. The players were reportedly made to eat plain pasta, chicken and vegetables regularly as ketchup, mayonnaise and other treats were taken off the menu.

A few players who were part of the Spurs side have admitted that the dietary changes did not go down well among the players.

Pascal Chimbonda sheds light on working with Ramos at Spurs

Across his two stints with the club, Chimbonda made 103 appearances for Tottenham. The former right-back has confessed that the changes to the menu at the club training ground were not ideal but insisted that it was not an issue as long as the team was getting results on the pitch.

When asked about the dietary changes that Ramos brought in, the Frenchman told (talkSPORT): “When we say some player is overweight and we have to do the diet on some players so he banned ketchup and sometimes banned sauce.

“You eat like dry rice. You see like no sauce, you eat your chicken dry. Wow. It was hard but as a footballer, if you’re happy on the pitch it doesn’t matter what’s going on outside.”

However, Chimbonda remarked that Ramos’ biggest problem was the fact that his assistant, Gus Poyet, had to convey his messages to the players due to the former Spurs head coach’s inability to speak English.

The 45-year-old added: “The assistant coach was speaking English so I think it was easier to communicate with the players because he was full Spanish. I don’t even think he wanted to speak English, you know.

“So yes it’s hard when you can’t talk, communicate with your manager, with your own players and bring your assistant coach to communicate. I think it’s something hard because you don’t have the privacy. If you want to speak to the coach privately you don’t have the privacy with it.”

Chimbonda recalls belief ahead of Spurs 2008 League Cup final

Unsurprisingly, lifting the League Cup at Wembley in 2008 remains a career highlight for Chimbonda, who started at left-back in that game, with Alan Hutton, who had only been signed a few weeks before, playing at right-back.

Tottenham went 1-0 down in the first half to a Didier Drogba free-kick before turning the game around with an equaliser from Dimitar Berbatov from the penalty spot and an extra-time winner from Jonathan Woodgate.

When asked about lifting the league cup, Chimbonda responded: “When you’re a player, you’re playing to win trophies, titles, you know what I mean and like I said our season was so bad and you know we were 14th I think.

“We weren’t playing well, getting battered every time we go play and we were in a final. We said ‘Let’s give everything, let’s do everything to win’, because the game before we beat Arsenal 5-1 (the second leg of the semifinal).

“The confidence was there and we go higher to the final and played in the new Wembley as well. Wembley was everything, it was a big, big game and we won the trophy.

“Chelsea at the time was big… but when you play football it’s 11 men against 11 men. No fear. That guy doesn’t have anything different than I’ve got. He’s a man like me. We get everything the same so we go play and we win.

“You know, we were losing 1-0 but we keep believing in ourselves, we keep believing in all the players we’ve got and we did it.”

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