Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta says Tottenham's Carling Cup victory was the SECOND big success Juande Ramos has enjoyed since his appointment.

Arteta said: "Juande had already had success at Tottenham before Sunday's final. He led Tottenham, a team that was in really bad shape only a couple of months ago, to recovery.

"I remember the day we played against them. I spoke for a while with Marcos Alvarez, their fitness coach, who was telling me how they found the squad when they arrived.

"Poor guy, he was recounting things that had left them stupefied - like how overweight the players were in general, or the dietary habits of some of the players there.

"He said they were stunned when they arrived at the restaurant and saw it full of sweets, cakes, Tabasco, mayonnaise, Coca-Cola . . .

"He told me they could not believe it - they had to do a pre-season in mid-December and change things radically."

The Spanish midfielder also told El Mundo Deportivo: "The truth is they were astounded by something that for me already was something normal. In teams managed by foreigners this is something that is less and less frequent.

"But in teams like mine, it's still an English tradition - this kind of food is our 'daily bread'. When I arrived at Everton, the restaurant that we have in our training ground served fish and chips.

"But there are team-mates who are used to it and it's difficult to make them change. So as a result when I arrived I started asking them to cook my pasta as I like it - and the rice . . . and the chicken breast, too!

"The truth is, I don't like food with spices and I prefer to keep away from those sweets and cakes they wolf down in this country. So I bring my own rice and tomato sauce and tell Sue, our cook, how I want it done - with a little bit of garlic and some onion."