Mourinho ‘needs an Aaron Lennon’ as Spurs side that finished 8th branded better

Jamie O’Hara thinks the Tottenham team of 2009 was better than the current squad and claims Jose Mourinho ‘needs an Aaron Lennon’ to get his side firing in attack.

Spurs may have finished eighth in the Premier League that season but O’Hara thinks they were stronger on paper than Mourinho’s crop.

They also reached the League Cup final that season while Darren Bent finished top scorer with 17 goals in all competitions.

O’Hara, who made 28 appearances for Spurs that season, told talkSPORT Breakfast: “I think the 2009 team was a better team than Spurs have got now.

“You are talking about Modric, Berbatov, Keane, Bale, Lennon. I think Spurs need an Aaron Lennon and that should be Lucas Moura and should be Steven Bergwijn.

“Aaron Lennon was someone who had blistering pace, could get beyond and when he got the ball he could make things happen.

“When I’m seeing Bergwijn and Moura get the ball, they’re not making things happen.”

When told on air that they finished eighth that season, O’Hara replied: “They came eighth? I’m talking about the team on paper.”

But O’Hara conceded that although teams in the past may have been stronger and more exciting to watch, it didn’t end their trophy drought. 

He added: “At the end of the day, Spurs haven’t won a trophy and they’ve brought Mourinho in and changed the mentality of how they want to play and how they do things.

“If at the end of the season he has a trophy to show for it then it’s a huge success.

“He’s brainwashed the players into thinking ‘this is the way we are going to do things and we are going to get results playing this way’.

“It hasn’t quite worked out in the last couple of weeks and they’ve dropped away but they still have enough quality in the team to win games.”