Ramos prepared to bide his time

Juande Ramos admits ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League will be shelved while he instills confidence in the squad…

Juande Ramos admits ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League will be shelved while he instills confidence in the squad he has inherited at Tottenham.

The Spaniard was unveiled at White Hart Lane as the successor to Martin Jol, who failed to convince the Spurs board that he was the man to break them into the top four when he began preparations for the start of the season.

The messy episode since then has seen the club's integrity questioned after Ramos was pictured at the same hotel as Spurs officials, and they have only won once in the Premier League since.

Spurs are targeting progress after consecutive fifth-placed finishes under Jol but Ramos just wants to get to get his players performing with belief following his arrival from Sevilla.

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"Our main aim will be to try to get good results straight away, to try and bring some confidence back in the team," he said. "Ultimately, we will see what we can achieve in the long term."

Ramos had his players in a double training session on his first day in charge and — along with assistants Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez — will also prepare with them during the day tomorrow, with the Carling Cup clash against Blackpool in the evening.

"We will do our best to try to impose our own style of discipline," Ramos said. "I don't know how Martin used to train.
I'll try to instill some discipline into the team and I'm sure the players will respond in the right way."

Chairman Daniel Levy has always stopped short of demanding Champions League football at White Hart Lane, but that is part of his aims for club given their investment in players and the plans for playing in front of larger crowds.

Ramos will start aiming for the big prizes when confidence is restored, along with imposing the attacking brand of football he had at Sevilla.

"I've signed a long contract and my aims will get better in time," he said. "Attacking football is my philosophy. If you want to instil that in Tottenham, you need the right ingredients.

"Tottenham has a reputation of playing good, attacking football albeit a little bit different from that played in Spain. But we'll do our best to play that attacking style that everybody wants to see.

"I'm a professional and I'll always try to do my best, so I'll create a style of football that suits my style."