Ramos calm ahead of Reds test

HOW times change. An image on Juande Ramos's official website shows a group of gleeful Tottenham Hotspur supporters holding aloft a giant image of the Spaniard after he had led the team to victory over Chelsea in the Carling Cup final.

On that day almost exactly a year ago, Ramos would never have predicted his English dream was going to end so quickly, nor would he have guessed that his next serious assault on a trophy would come as manager of Real Madrid.

Rafael Benítez takes his Liverpool side to the Spanish capital tonight for a Champions League clash against a Madrid team that has been transformed under Ramos. If it was winning only two points from eight games that lost the 54-year-old his job in the worst start to a season ever seen at White Hart Lane, then it is a current run of eight straight wins that are threatening to keep him in his position at the Santiago Bernabéu beyond the present campaign.