• Jamie O’Hara does not want to play ‘one in six’ games
• Will ask Redknapp if the manager wants to offload him
Jamie O’Hara fears his return to Tottenham Hotspur next season could be short-lived as he refuses to settle for a place on Harry Redknapp’s bench.
The midfielder has thrived during his season-long loan at Portsmouth, establishing himself as the first name on the manager Avram Grant’s teamsheet and being voted as the club’s player of the year by nine different supporters’ groups.
He will go back to White Hart Lane after Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea, for which he is a selection doubt because of two stress fractures in his lower back, but he cannot accept a return to the status of bit-part player even though his worth may be increased by his versatility to play on the left.
Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, will need greater depth to his squad next season as he takes the club into the Champions League for the first time. O’Hara’s worth might be increased by his versatility; he can also play at left midfield or even left-back.
But the 23-year-old worries that Tottenham are well stocked in these areas. Redknapp’s options in central midfield comprise Tom Huddlestone, Wilson Palacios, Luka Modric and Jermaine Jenas, while Sandro, the young Brazil international, will join in the summer. Modric can also play on the left flank, where Redknapp has Gareth Bale, Niko Kranjcar and Danny Rose while at left-back, together with Bale, there is Benoît Assou-Ekotto.
“There are already five or six great central midfield players at Spurs and the manager may bring some more in,” said O’Hara. “Spurs have done fantastically this year so it is going to be difficult for me to get in the team. I will just have to sit down with Harry and see what he wants to do with me, whether he wants to offload me to somewhere else or if he wants to keep me.
“I have tasted first-team football now and I would not want to go back to sitting on the bench and playing one match in six. You can’t just come in and have one game in six if you want to play at the top level. I have come to Portsmouth and had a great season personally, so hopefully this can be a stepping stone to go on to better things.”
O’Hara, a boyhood Tottenham fan, managed to ruffle a few feathers back at White Hart Lane when he said that he wanted the team to lose to Fulham in their FA Cup quarter-final replay. Portsmouth had been drawn to face the winners and O’Hara knew that the terms of his loan would preclude him from playing in a semi-final against Tottenham.
Redknapp publicly ticked him off for his comments but, after Tottenham won and O’Hara found himself in the TV studio for the Wembley semi-final as a pundit, he again said that he wanted Spurs to lose as he was a professional and Portsmouth was his current club.
“I am not bothered about going back to Spurs as any issues arising from my comments have been swept under the bridge,” said O’Hara. “I have spoken to Harry and he is fine with it. When I spoke to him, he said, ‘You are young and I know you want to play in a Cup final but you have to be careful’. Maybe that is something I have got to learn but I see myself as an honest footballer and I was speaking my mind.”
O’Hara could be forgiven for feeling that he is jinxed at Wembley. He was dropped by the then Tottenham manager Juande Ramos for the 2008 Carling Cup final victory over Chelsea, despite having featured in the first-leg of the semi-final against Arsenal while last season, after Tottenham again reached the final of the competition, he missed a penalty in the shoot-out defeat to Manchester United.
“If we are going to beat Chelsea, we are just going to have to play out of our skins and ride our luck a bit,” O’Hara said. “We are probably going to need Chelsea to have an off-day – maybe they might have a hangover from winning the Premier League. But on our day, we can beat anyone. We have put in great performances this year.”ends
Tottenham HotspurPortsmouthDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk
