The former Spurs midfielder was analyzing Spurs on Sky Sports FC and delivered a rather damning verdict on the north London club as they are hovering perilously close to the relegation zone.
Tottenham Hotspur are in a precarious position as the 2025/26 Premier League season enters its final stretch, and former Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara has not held back in his assessment of why. talking Sky Sports FCO’Hara delivered an impassioned and unflinching verdict on a club that, for the first time in nearly 50 years, is staring down the very real prospect of relegation.
Spurs currently sit 16th in the Premier League table, just four points above the drop zone with 11 games to play. Sunday’s 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Arsenal in the north London derby extended their league winless run in 2026 to nine games. Jamie O’Hara believes the problems run much deeper than tactics or personnel as he also gave his verdict on talkSPORT radio show The Sports Bar following Spurs’ 1-4 humiliation at home to arch-rivals Arsenal.
“This is a mindset”
O’Hara’s central argument is not about quality, but about character. He was hoping to see a “managerial bounce” under new head coach Igor Tudor, especially against an Arsenal side that had struggled in recent weeks. What he saw, however, left him speechless.
“I expected the team to go into this game with a high attitude, some passion, fight, relentless pressure,” O’Hara said. “Quite the opposite. It was miles away from where I thought it was.”
Most serious of all was O’Hara’s view that the team’s basic defensive work ethic had completely broken down. He pointed out the first 15 minutes of the arsenal specifically, where Spurs players were seen “passing” runners instead of following them, a fundamental failing that he says has nothing to do with ability.
“This is not about skills. This is not about talent. This is a mentality and a culture at a football club.”
Conviction statistics
The numbers support O’Hara’s argument. Spurs have been outscored in each of their last five Premier League games, and rank lowest in the entire division for high turnovers, meaning they are losing the ball in dangerous areas near their own goal more than any other team. In the same derby, Arsenal covered around four and a half kilometers more than Tottenham as a team.
“You can’t have Newcastle running almost four miles further than you,” O’Hara said bluntly. “That to me is a culture and a mentality at a football club that is in disarray.”
Players “Looking at the exit door”
O’Hara went further, suggesting that some players may already have one foot out the door, mentally fired from the relegation battle and dreaming of bigger stages.
“These players want to be in the Champions League, to play good football. They are in a relegation fight, and for me that was the biggest thing I noticed. They have their heads down. They are looking for excuses.”
He highlighted Xavi Simons – on loan from PSG – as an example of a player whose quality is not in doubt, but whose attitude in a fight has been lacking. “Xavi Simons, you’re in a relegation fight. You have to play like you’re in a relegation fight.”
“The spurs will fall”
The warning O’Hara issued was stark and unequivocal. He contrasted Tottenham’s mentality with the sides around them in the table, West Ham and Nottingham Forest, who, he argued, have the grit and experience to claw their way to safety precisely because they know what a relegation battle demands.
“The teams at the bottom, West Ham, Nottingham Forest, will run. They will fight. They will wipe out, because they know they are there. Spurs don’t want to be there.”
With the club winless since last year and without relegation from the top flight since 1977/78, the stakes couldn’t be higher. New boss Igor Tudor will be looking for his first win in charge when Spurs travel to Fulham on Sunday, a game which, given what O’Hara described, looks like a lot more than just three points.
“They don’t have the stomach to fight,” O’Hara concluded. “This needs to be addressed quickly, because Spurs will go down.”
