Ramos Denial (again)

When Juande Ramos, the Seville coach, arrived home yesterday after a tense and well-attended press conference, the calls from friends in England began. To his dismay, it was being reported that he had admitted being offered the manager’s job at Tottenham Hotspur — and the Barclays Premier League club were furious.

By the time his words were broadcast on English television later, the media machine could not be stopped, so last night Ramos contacted The Times to claim that a combination of badly chosen words and incorrect translation were to blame for reports that he had not only been offered the job, but that he had described the terms as “dizzying”. In fact, he said, he had never met anybody from Spurs (although he did not deny that someone did so on his behalf), and that there was no such offer.

According to initial reports, Ramos was supposed to have said: “They [Tottenham] made an excellent, dizzying offer, but I’m under contract and my decision is to fulfil it. There was not the slightest possibility that I would accept it because I’m under contract. It did not interest me.” Last night he apologised to Tottenham, who had posted a denial on their website that they had offered the manager’s job, held by Martin Jol, to anyone.

“I did not get offered the Spurs job at all,” Ramos said. “There never was an offer on the table from them. Spurs is a big club and anyone would be interested in the opportunity, but it is not one for me now.”

Above from The Times. If its true, it still doesn't change much in that someone did go to Spain to meet with a representative of Ramos. Whether this was Spurs thinking about the future (i.e. building a relationship just in case Jol left or failed) or whether they went there with the intentions of bringing him over ASAP - is anyone's guess. Flip a coin.

I think from body language, Levy and co are not innocent in all this, but the media have helped to really take the whole story to inane levels.

Don't worry, I'm not going soft. Levy is still in the bad books.