Darren Bent says Tottenham was 'a horrible piece to be' under Juande Ramos

Bent aired his thoughts after his side's victory over Liverpool at the weekend, which saw him set the winning goal up for the Russian striker – a partnership that Ramos claimed would never work.

"It was said that me and Roman couldn't play together," Bent said.

"But I set him up to score the winning goal, and, with time the partnership will blossom. We will keep working on things in training and keep trying to improve."

Admitting that he and the squad are far happier and more optimistic under new manager Harry Redknapp, Bent said that the atmosphere at White Hart Lane in the final weeks of Ramos' time had been seriously unhealthy.

"At one stage the training ground was a horrible place to be," he said.

"Everyone was down, there was no team morale. But Harry has come in, everyone has had a new lease of life and that has shown in the performances.

"It wasn't nice before, Ramos came in and banished a lot of players to the reserves because he didn't want them."

Admitting he had never got very close to the Spaniard, Bent spoke of the restoration in faith Redknapp has installed in the players.

He told the Mail: "Harry has come in and made everyone welcome, and that's the respect you have to show people. He's made people believe they're good players and that we shouldn't be where we are.

"He can talk to people one-on-one, have a proper conversation. With Juande and the Spanish it was a bit hard.

"I didn't ever really get to know Ramos."

Redknapp also criticised Ramos' decision to write off the partnership of Bent and Pavlyuchenko.

"It seems strange that you pay £16 million for Bent and then go and pay £14 million for Pavlyuchenko and then realise they can't play together. They've got to," said Redknapp.