Juande Ramos is not mysterious. It is just that he does not speak perfect English yet. And, in the words of a foreign Barclays Premier League manager who is not Spanish, “If he can manage it, he should keep the translator for as long as he can.” To keep the distance, to keep the aura, to keep the air of mystery, so that he can focus on what he does best — coaching a team to maximise their talent.

The best way to describe the Tottenham Hotspur head coach is to write about what he is not. He does not have the aura of José Mourinho or the style of Fabio Capello. He does not inspire fear or respect as Sir Alex Ferguson does and he is not as meticulous or obsessive about details as Rafael Benítez. He is, in fact, the neighbour from the fourth floor, the guy you meet in the lift who always carries the same coat and the same briefcase, and an umbrella in case of rain. The older man you say “hi” to and have a casual chat with every now and again without learning anything new about him or his life.

Ramos is a normal guy, but with an extraordinary talent. “He is the most intelligent football man I have ever had as a coach,” Julen Lopetegui, his goalkeeper at Rayo Vallecano, said.

What does it mean to be intelligent in football terms? “He would give you four or five tactical instructions, put in a very simple way — something about the left back leaving space behind, the mistakes of the rival centre backs, the way to defend against a striker, the weakness of the other side,” Fernando Sanz, who, as a centre back at Màlaga, was one of the success stories in Ramos’s bumpy ride to the top, said. “And when you thought about it after the game, you would realise those were the keys of the match.

“Marcos Álvarez [the Tottenham first-team coach] is the expert, and one of the best around, too, at preparing the side physically, while Juande puts most of the work into planning matches and strategy. He sees football and reads into situations, he identifies problems during games. He is like a very cold-hearted general at war.”

Many people identify problems, but what sets Ramos apart is the way he solves them. There is an anecdote about Ramos, while in charge at Rayo, taking off one of his players who was not working hard enough and leaving his team with ten men. “The side was fast asleep and they needed to react. We won 2-0 at the end, I would have been hanged otherwise,” Ramos said.

Another improvised tactical decision won him the European Super Cup against Barcelona. He originally placed Renato, the central midfield player, on the right-hand side, but five minutes into the game, he decided that the space left in the hole could be used by the Brazilian. So, without having rehearsed playing in the role in training, Renato was deployed behind two strikers for the first time in his career.

He scored two minutes after the tactical move and Seville won 3-0 that night. Before the Carling Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley tomorrow, Ramos has realised the need to relax his players, so the training sessions have been full of light and entertaining exercises.

Ramos is not comfortable in public and, as Sanz, now the Málaga chairman, said, “his main problem is that he doesn’t know how to sell himself.” So much so that for years he has received advice from a prominent Spanish journalist based in Madrid about how to handle press conferences, how to dress and even how to celebrate goals. “You might feel that your team scoring is as satisfactory as finishing a good training session, but you have to punch your fists in the air with more conviction,” he was told.

While he takes time to learn English and to adapt to the customs of English football, he is losing some friends in the game. Paul Jewell, the Derby County manager, didn’t take gladly to Ramos’s decision to ask one of his assistants to take the team sheet to the referee when, according to the etiquette, it is the manager who should do so. After the 1-1 Premier League draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford earlier this month, Ramos eschewed the post-match drink with Sir Alex Ferguson, his opposite number. Instead Gustavo Poyet, the other first-team coach, went to enjoy the hospitality.

Ramos prefers to maintain the distance for now, while he learns about his new surroundings. But he is not shy to try out his peculiar sense of humour. Jermaine Jenas, the Tottenham midfield player, is still trying to understand some of the funny comments that he comes up with.

He talks to the players in English, though, and uses Poyet to put some of his messages across, but the barriers created by language have not been an obstacle: the squad, a young group that viewed his arrival with suspicion, believe in his unbiased approach to them.

“That was the first thing we had to do, to win everybody’s respect,” Álvarez said. “And you do that by improving the players and being fair.”

If Ramos has something to say to a player, he does so to his face. And he keeps all his players happy by the same honest approach. “They all know that he will only play the players on form,” Antonio Álvarez, his former assistant at Seville, said. “He rewards the hard work.”

Even if that upsets the club. Seville, as an example, had bought last summer Aquivaldo Mosquera, a Colombia player and the most expensive defender in their history, who was replaced twice at half-time after Ramos didn’t like the look of him.

That directness and dryness of character made him unpopular at Barcelona B and Espanyol, but was sweetened by success at Seville, where he led the club to Uefa Cup final victories last year and in 2006.

He is driven by success and ambition, but he is also fuelled by moments of failure. As a player, he moved his family to Alicante, but a knee injury forced him to retire at the age of 28. He cried when Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, the jealous Real Betis chairman, got rid of him after leading the side to Uefa Cup qualification. Success at Rayo, Betis and Málaga had earned him the tag of “coach of small overachieving sides” and difficulties at the Catalan clubs stopped him getting a bigger job until Seville gave him the chance four seasons ago.

Until his arrival at White Hart Lane, he had sometimes been underused, underestimated, badly treated. And now he looks back and smiles, but only because he has proven them all wrong.

The final countdown

- Tottenham have won 78 per cent of the finals they have played (in the FA Cup, League Cup and three main European competitions) and Chelsea 75 per cent (Spurs 14 of 18; Chelsea 12 of 16).

- Tottenham lost the previous League Cup final to be played on February 24 (Blackburn Rovers won 2-1 in 2002).

- Chelsea have not lost in open play in this competition since December 2003, when Aston Villa beat them 2-1 at Villa Park in a quarter-final. They won the trophy in 2004-05 and 2006-07 and were beaten on penalties by Charlton Athletic in the season between those triumphs.

- Chelsea are aiming to be the first side to retain the League Cup since Nottingham Forest in 1990.

Words by Bill Edgar