Juande Ramos has lifted the lid on his controversial diet regime at former club Tottenham.

The new Real Madrid coach said: "Dr Escribano helped us a lot from the point of view of the team needing a change of habits.

"He went with us to London and four or five months later we had won a trophy and everybody was delighted saying: 'This is the miracle of the pulp and the diet.'

"But six or seven months later things were not going so well and suddenly the diet and what we were eating was wrong."

Ramos said the dip in form was nothing to do with under-fed footballers.

He added: "Football is like that. These things happen. There is no explanation for it. And it is very easy to fall back on excuses that don't have a lot of substance."