Jamie O’Hara was pushed to the edge.
Having watched Tottenham get kicked from pillar to post by Liverpool in their 4-0 Carabao Cup semi-final loss, he then had to go to work and host The Sports Bar on talkSPORT.
If that wasn’t bad enough, former Liverpool player Jermaine Pennant then phoned up to rub salt into the Tottenham fan’s wounds. It won’t have been lost on former Spurs midfielder O’Hara that Pennant also played for north London rivals Arsenal.
Despite holding a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Spurs were hammered at Anfield in the second leg.
On a night where Tottenham had five shots with none on target, Ange Postecoglou‘s side were ridiculed by Jamie Carragher who stated that Accrington Stanley had put up more of a fight when they took on the Reds in the FA Cup in January.
O’Hara would have known it was going to be a rough night on The Sports Bar alongside Chelsea fan Jason Cundy, but ‘Jay the Liverpool fan’ made it worse.
“You boys took one hell of a beating,” he shouted down the phone after opening his call by mimicking Cundy’s ‘Haaas anyone seen…’ speech he saves when mocking a team’s result.
Pennant then burst into song. “Mo Salah, Mo Salah, running down the wing. Mo Salah, the Egyptian King,” he sang as the Kop do every weekend.
He then switched to the iconic Anfield anthem, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ before turning his attention on his friend, O’Hara, by laughing at Spurs’ trophy drought.
“Jamie, enjoy your weekend and another 30 years of no trophies!”
O’Hara could only laugh and plead for his pal to go easy. “Come on, mate. I can take it from [fellow talkSPORT host] Gabby Agbonlahor and all that, but I ain’t taking it from you, that’s for sure.”
“You’ve got to take it, mate,” said Pennant. “You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.”
Cundy then applauded the effort Pennant put in to wind up an already unhappy O’Hara.
O’Hara then snapped. “The pair of you can do one,” he declared.
While taking the banter in good spirits, O’Hara playfully put down his headphones before walking out of the studio.
Asked for his thoughts on Tottenham, Pennant said: “They’re stinking on every single level.
“They absolutely reek the place out from minute one. I was thinking that [Liverpool] aren’t losing this game in any way, shape or form.”
For Tottenham it means that another opportunity to win a trophy this season has drifted away.
Spurs haven’t won a major cup in 17 years, with the 2008 win over Chelsea in the League Cup being the last taste of success.
They now have the FA Cup and Europa League to fight for if they’re to fulfil Postecoglou’s brag about ‘always winning a trophy in his second season’.
“It’s fair to say we didn’t really get to the levels we needed to,” the manager said afterwards.
“It was always going to be a big challenge for us, they’re obviously a very good side and in a great moment with all their players in very good form, very settled.
“But for us to give ourselves an opportunity, we had to be a lot more aggressive with and without the ball and we weren’t. We allowed them to control the game.
“It was a great opportunity for us to get to a final and to let it slip was disappointing.”
With Spurs in the bottom half of the Premier League, the result increases the pressure on Postecoglou but, even though he could point to a lengthy list of absentees in mitigation, he does not care what critics say.
He said: “I don’t worry about being judged or who’s judging. I think ultimately my responsibility is that I try and get the players I have to perform to the best of their abilities and to tackle the challenges we’ve got at the moment.”
Up next for Spurs is Aston Villa in the FA Cup.