Jamie O’Hara rips into Spurs over £70m+ Leeds, Burnley deals | OneFootball

The former Spurs man has had his say on X about the club's Championship dealings

Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jamie O'Hara has expressed his anger at his old club signing players from clubs lower down in the pyramid, such as Championship sides Leeds United and Burnley.

O'Hara, who featured 56 times for the club from 2005 to 2011, and currently works as a pundit for talkSPORT, took to his personal account on social media platform X yesterday to voice his concern at Spurs' summer dealings after their 1-0 loss to rivals Arsenal in the North London Derby, and insisted that they can "expect Championship results" if they sign players from the second tier.

O'Hara's post is undoubtedly referring to new Spurs men Wilson Odobert, who joined from the Clarets in a deal worth an initial £25m this summer, and youngster Archie Gray, who arrived from the Whites in July for a fee believed to be around £30m.

Spurs have not enjoyed a great start to their campaign in the Premier League so far under Ange Postecoglou, and currently sit 13th in the table with one win, one draw and two losses in their first four games following that narrow defeat to the Gunners on Sunday.

Wilson Odobert and Archie Gray are not to blame for Spurs' poor start

O'Hara's public outburst is a sign of the clear discontent around Spurs' poor start to the season, but his anger is surely misplaced if it is being aimed at the likes of Odobert and Gray, who are both 19 and 18 years of age respectively, and are each very inexperienced players when compared to the senior heads in Postecoglou's squad.

Winger Odobert did impress at times with Burnley last season in their turbulent top-flight campaign under Vincent Kompany, after he was signed from French side Troyes, but found life in the Premier League pretty tough in a struggling side, and it may have come as a shock to many that Spurs were after him this summer.

He has barely made his mark on Postecoglou's side this season so far though, and it seems like he may have been thrust into consistent first-team action too soon, with starts against Everton and Newcastle United that saw him substituted off after failing to make much of an impact.

The Frenchman is still a young player that is learning on the job for a club that is expecting to push for the top four in the Premier League, so not much should be expected of him at this stage.

Gray seems even more blameless than his fellow teammate, with just two substitute appearances so far in his debut campaign against Leicester City and Everton, with Spurs picking up points in both games.

He was not given minutes in their two losses against Newcastle and Arsenal, so if anything, he has been a positive on the pitch for the club so far this season, and should probably be given more opportunities to prove himself soon.

Jamie O'Hara's Championship jibe does not hold up amid past Defoe, Aaron Lennon deals

O'Hara was pretty clear in his message that he is against his old club signing players from Championship sides, but the examples he gave of former players that had success in North London were quickly disputed by fans in the replies under his post.

The 37-year-old named former-team mates Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe, among others, as players that he believed were better acquisitions than Spurs's current crop of new signings, but failed to realise that those three players were signed by Tottenham from respective second tier clubs.

Huddlestone, who is currently a first-team coach at Wigan Athletic, joined Spurs in January 2005 from Championship side Derby County, and went on to feature over 200 times for the North London club.

Rapid winger Lennon, meanwhile, shares many similarities with the aforementioned Gray, after he was signed from Leeds United as an 18-year-old in the summer of 2005 following an exciting season with the Whites in the Championship.

Defoe joined Spurs from West Ham in February 2004, with the Irons then plying their trade in the First Division, and went on to become one of the club's greatest ever strikers, so it is clear that sometimes, signing players from second-tier clubs can be quite fruitful.

O'Hara may have to backtrack on his words if either Odobert or Gray go on to achieve anything close to what these three players did at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.