‘Our mics were left on’: Sky pundit overheard criticising Tottenham man, has to ‘clear up’ comments

Follow us on Google Discover

Stephen Warnock has had to clear up comments on Sky Sports News, after he was heard criticising Tottenham Hotspur’s decision to put Ryan Mason in temporary charge.

The Sky pundit seemingly thought he was off air when he said: ‘No, I don’t agree with that, Ryan Mason’.

He then went on to briefly explain the comments, seemingly to a producer, before he was quickly interrupted by presenter Rob Wotton, who was told they were live.

The comments were overlooked initially, but Warnock seemingly wanted to make a point about them after the next advert break.

“Stephen, let’s come to you. Because viewers might have heard a comment from you about Ryan Mason that you’d like to clear up,” Wotton said.

And Warnock responded: “Yeah, we were just talking off air and our mics were left on, and we came back to the show a little earlier.

“I was just saying that I thought that the right thing to do would be to put Ledley King in charge from a fans’ point of view and from Daniel Levy’s point of view.

“To have a legend in charge on the touchline and have Ryan Mason alongside him. Obviously he’s very highly thought of, with the under-23’s and that was my thought process behind it. I wasn’t slagging Ryan Mason in any way at all, that was just my feel on the situation.”

Mason certainly is inexperienced, but he has a similar level of grounding in coaching to Ledley King, so it is rather difficult to argue one is a better candidate than the other.

King does have a greater standing at Tottenham from their playing days, but Mason’s coaching skills have always been spoken of very highly, particularly by Mauricio Pochettino.

Mason has worked with Tottenham’s youngsters for a number of years now, while King was appointed as defensive coach by Jose Mourinho.

Mason comes in at Tottenham in an extremely pressurised situation.

Not only are the club facing backlash from their decision to join the European Super League, but they have a huge League Cup final clash with Manchester City on the horizon.