{"id":620696,"date":"2026-04-21T05:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620696\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T05:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:07:11","slug":"sky-sports-anti-spurs-agenda-exposed-through-incredible-five-word-slip-and-bizarre-legend-vendetta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620696\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky Sports’ anti-Spurs agenda exposed through incredible five-word slip and bizarre ‘legend’ vendetta"},"content":{"rendered":"

While no one would disagree with Alan Smith\u2019s assessment of Brennan Johnson\u2019s Crystal Palace career thus far, least of all Johnson himself we suspect as he\u2019s yet to register a goal in 19 appearances following his \u00a335m transfer from Tottenham in January, the co-commentator\u2019s pre-match \u201d he\u2019s just not been good enough, frankly\u201d quip felt strangely brutal.<\/p>\n

Such comments are usually paired with \u2018needs time to bed in\u2019 caveats but Johnson was given short shrift by the former Arsenal striker, who proceeded to expose what certainly sounded like a deep-seated vendetta against the former Spurs winger and his North London bias to those donning tin-foil hats on their sofas at home hoping and preying a hero of theirs could do them a favour in the battle to avoid relegation.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Arsenal \u2018given title boost\u2019 and Tottenham \u2018terrify\u2019 relegation rivals on glorious weekend of triumph<\/a><\/p>\n

After an opening to the game in which Johnson was just about the only attacking outlet for an otherwise toothless Crystal Palace side, Smith declared that \u201cpretty much everything that could go wrong for Brennan Johnson has gone wrong in these first 20 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had just been booked for cynical swipe at El Hadji Malick Diouf, seconds after misdirecting a free header well wide of the target. Neither moment showed Johnson in the best light, but a more kindly appraiser might at least have praised the intent \u2013 he was in the right position to score \u2013 but not Smith, who simply insisted \u201che has to do better\u201d.<\/p>\n

Discussing the moment in the Sky Sports studio at the break, and how it would have been viewed by Spurs fans rooting for a West Ham defeat to keep them within a point of safety<\/a>, Jamie Carragher said: \u201cJohnson\u2019s a Tottenham legend and always will be after his goal in the Europa League final, but he misses the chance to become an even bigger Tottenham legend here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two minutes later Smith claimed \u201cJohnson could easily have been sent off for a second yellow\u201d if \u2013 and this felt crucial \u2013 it had been Johnson fouling Diouf and not Daniel Munoz, who wasn\u2019t cautioned in any case.<\/p>\n

Soon after, when Johnson took a very nice touch to make space for himself before curling a deflected shot just wide of the post, Smith commended Johnson as though he was a toddler hanging limply from a set of monkey bars or an infirm pensioner looking to extricate themselves from a wheelchair. \u201cFair play to him for having a go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The co-commentator then identified a possible concussion for Johnson after a nasty clash of heads with Diouf as a blessing in disguise for Palace just before half-time. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Johnson did come off,\u201d he said. \u201c[Ismaila] Sarr\u2019s on the bench; he\u2019s been booked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith didn\u2019t get his wish but a brilliant cross across the face of West Ham\u2019s goal from Johnson shortly after the break served to illustrate the collective improvement rather than Johnson\u2019s individual quality: \u201cThat\u2019s a little bit better from Palace.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a similar situation a few minutes later Johnson took the wrong option, but not in such an evident and disgraceful way to give rise to a sound typically reserved for when someone steps in dog mess: \u201cUrgh, you\u2019ve got to pull it back for [Jorgen] Strand Larsen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver Glasner at least saw enough in Johnson\u2019s performance to keep him on the pitch longer than both Yeremy Pino and Strand Larsen as Palace chased a winning goal.<\/p>\n

It never arrived to the delight of Smith, who spectacularly failed to hide his anti-Spurs agenda in the very last action of the game as substitute Mohamadou Kante charged down the right for West Ham.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo on, all the way,\u201d Smith muttered.<\/p>\n

We get that Tottenham getting relegated would be a) hilarious, b) good business for Sky Sports and everyone else, and c) hilarious, but openly rooting for one of their relegation rivals on a co-commentary stint otherwise used to disparage a former Spurs player because you used to play for Arsenal made for an uncomfortably conspicuous night of prejudice from Smith on a channel that should surely at least give the impression of impartiality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While no one would disagree with Alan Smith\u2019s assessment of Brennan Johnson\u2019s Crystal Palace career thus far, least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,42662,10195,1523,2723,596,585,44,85,10988,1529],"class_list":{"0":"post-620696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brennan-johnson","11":"tag-crystal-palace","12":"tag-f365-features","13":"tag-f365-says","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-front-page","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-tottenham-hotspur","19":"tag-west-ham-united"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}