Jamie O’Hara went viral on social media for his coverage of Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat to Slovenian side NS Mura in the European Conference League on Thursday night.Spurs slumped to an embarrassing loss against the lowest-ranked team in the competition. Mura have a UEFA coefficient ranking of 341 and appeared to have their work cut out against a team featuring Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Bryan Gil and Tanguy Ndombele.However, the hosts took the lead in Maribor courtesy of an 11th-minute strike from Tomi Horvat and then scored the winner deep into stoppage time through Amadej Marosa, who cancelled out Kane’s second-half equaliser.It was a humiliating and concerning defeat for recently-appointed Spurs boss Antonio Conte, who told reporters after the match: "After three weeks I am starting to understand the situation. It is not simple. At this moment the level at Tottenham is not so high."This a bad loss for us. The performance was poor. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us. This is a difficult moment for us. We need patience to improve, to be good again. We were poor not only technically and tactically but also mentally. It will take time to bring Tottenham back.”
Jamie O'Hara's Mura 2-1 Tottenham punditry goes viral
Like many, O’Hara didn’t see this result coming. The former Spurs midfielder, however, was supremely confident for Conte’s side prior to kick-off.
Working on the game for Sky Sports, O’Hara said: “This is going to be a walk in the park. I think we’re going to see four, five goals. It’s going to be a breeze. We’re going to see players playing well…”
After Tottenham went 1-0 down, a stunned O’Hara said: “It’s absolutely shocking, they should be ashamed of themselves. I don’t think you’ll see a few of these in a Spurs shirt again.”
And by full-time, O’Hara was listing the Tottenham players that he felt should never play for the club again.
Check out the clip here:
Oh, Jamie!
He’s not the first pundit to have a nightmare live on air, and he certainly won’t be the last.
“These are a Slovenian top-flight side that I would expect a National League side to give a game,” O’Hara said after watching Tottenham’s disastrous performance.
“It has been a disgrace and some of the players – and I’ll name them as well - (Matt) Doherty, (Tanguy) Ndombele, Dele Alli, Davinson Sanchez were absolutely shocking, they shouldn't wear a Spurs shirt again some of them in my opinion.
“This is a European game you need to win and go out and impress a new manager in Antonio Conte. You've got to go out there and give everything you’ve got and put in an unbelievable performance for yourself to say 'I want to be part of this group and part of this Conte era' – and not one player on that pitch deserves any credit from that game.
“It was a shocking performance. These players are strolling around the park like they’re dismissing this game as if they think they’re too good to play in it.
“It was an absolute disgrace from some of them – and if Conte doesn’t make big changes - get them out of the club, get ride of them, get them off the wage bill – we don’t want them, it was pathetic.”
This is the same Jamie O’Hara who proclaimed “Tottenham Hotspur are back!” just several weeks ago:
But it’s patently clear that Conte, as he realised himself on Thursday night, has a massive job on his hands in north London.
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