HATCHET MAN: Is Juande Ramos too lazy to learn the lingo?

Luiz Felipe Scolari has been here five minutes and is charming fans in the local language after intensive lessons and while Fabio Capello’s football might not make much sense, his English is improving all the time.

Both arrived in English football after Ramos.

Perhaps the Spurs manager doesn’t  think he will be around long enough for it to be worth knowing a new language after putting his neck on the line with top four ambitions this season.

Some have suggested that Ramos has kept on his translator to preserve his foreign aura and a smokescreen while he concentrates on the football.

But mixed messages are coming out of White Hart Lane. After the perilous 'Top Four' boast came the exit of Robbie Keane and the probable departure of Dimitar Berbatov. Ramos has since been lowering expectations.

He said: "Sometimes negotiations are even tougher than usual. Fans should be  aware we are trying to strengthen up front and sign a new forward. Quite often these things take time.

"It's true to say we have one or two areas that we need to look at defensively and maybe solve a few problems at the back," he added ominously.

What is the betting that contradictions or slips this season will be blamed on poor translation?

PS. Everyone but Tottenham fans with anger management issues must be able see  that Berbatov’s apparent signing of a Manchester United shirt was a set-up.

The fight to prise the striker from Tottenham has been a dirty one and this fan-infuriating trick is an old one, but surely the Old Trafford club weren‘t to  blame.

No one can forget Paul Ince wearing a United shirt before his move from West  Ham was complete (because bores at Upton park won‘t let us) yet this was no repeat.

It looks like an opportunist has cashed in while Berbatov wasn’t thinking,  but that won’t stop Spurs’ conspiracy theorists heating up the message boards.