Jamie O’Hara has revealed that he was once slapped in the face by Stephane Dalmat when he confronted the Frenchman for not putting in a shift during a reserve game.
Dalmat spent the 2003/04 season on loan at Tottenham from Inter Milan but he was hampered by injury during his time in North London and failed to get a consistent run in the side.
In fact, the versatile midfielder was even asked to play for the reserves at one point which was when he encountered a 17-year-old O’Hara, who was eager to make an impression.
The now-Billericay Town boss, who eventually went on to break into the Spurs first-team in 2007 under Juande Ramos, opened up on the row he had with Dalmat.
He admitted that when he called out the former PSG star in the dressing room for not working hard enough during a reserve game, he did not expect Dalmat to react in the way that he did.
O’Hara told talkSPORT Breakfast: “I had a row with Stephane Dalmat, who was at Spurs once.
“I was only a kid, I think I was 17, I was in the reserve team changing room and I was obviously really hungry to do well.
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“I had a lot of desire and he was obviously playing in the reserves and didn’t give a monkeys that he was there.
“I dug him out because he was just walking around being lazy. I came in after the game and I just said, ‘Stephane, if you don’t want to be here, just don’t be here!’
“And he just got up, walked over to me and I was thinking, ‘we’re going to have a Barney here, he’s going to say something…’
“…and he just slapped me in the face!
“A full-on, open palm of his hand slap, not a punch – just *tsh* right across the grid!
“So obviously I’ve then gone to steam into him and everyone has jumped in…. but the cheek of it, to just slap me in the face.
“I was like, ‘WOW!’ It just came out of nowhere!”
Spurs Web Opinion
Dalmat’s career since his failed loan spell at Spurs was extremely uninspiring indeed. While it can be argued that he was a victim of his own versatility, his attitude problems certainly did him no favours. Listening to O’Hara, it sounds like that also contributed to his struggles at Spurs.
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