Jamie O'Hara issues furious response to Brennan Johnson after viral Instagram comment

Jamie O'Hara has fired back at Brennan Johnson after his comments on the Welshman went viral on social media.

Johnson signed a four-year contract with Everton after leaving Crystal Palace on Tuesday as part of a swap deal with Dwight McNeil, who went in the other direction.

The 25-year-old spent only seven months at Selhurst Park after joining from Tottenham Hotspur in a £35 million transfer in January and made 26 appearances in all competitions without scoring while providing two assists.

A difficult start to life in south London, however, did end with his second trophy in as many seasons as he helped Palace win the Europa Conference League, a year after scoring the winning goal for Tottenham against Manchester United in the Europa League final.

But while the Wales international is excited about life at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, others have been less positive about the swap deal with McNeil.

Former Premier League players Gabby Agbonlahor and Jamie O'Hara mocked the duo for their underwhelming campaigns last time out, with Johnson receiving the brunt of the criticism.

"I like Dwight McNeil. Brennan Johnson has been a myth for a few seasons, right? He didn't do it at Spurs. One of our seasons he got top scorer, but hides in big games," O'Hara claimed. "Hides."

"You look at both of them, their outputs," Agbonlahor said. "16 Premier League appearances for Spurs [Johnson], two goals, zero assists. Then at Palace, zero goals, one assist."

"Four yellows, in 18 appearances," he added, prompting O'Hara to burst into laughter.

"Then Dwight McNeil last season, 22 appearances in the Premier League, zero goals, one assist. So he's not doing enough as well."

"I like Dwight McNeil," O'Hara reiterated. "If I was going to look at a player on a football pitch and say who would I rather have, I'd take Dwight McNeil. He's going to work hard, lovely left foot. He'll give you something.

"Brennan Johnson... he's so frustrating."

The clip was posted to talkSPORT's official Instagram account on Tuesday, and within hours, Johnson saw the video and decided to reply. "Won more than both of these put together," accompanied by a laughing a emoji, with the comment racking up over 17,000 likes.

Jamie O'Hara defends his comments on Brennan Johnson and Dwight McNeil

O'Hara isn't one to back down over his controversial comments and many will disagree with his viewpoint.

That was the case on Wednesday morning when the 39-year-old defended his initial claims on X, writing: "This the prob when you only listen to a clip and not full story, we were talking about Brennan and McNeil stats from last season which were CRAP not that they were bad players.

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"I’m a fan of McNeil and also said Brennan has all the attributes but he would admit his season was crap."

A flurry of people unsurprisingly responded to the post, with several claiming that O'Hara and Agbonlahor produce content to deliberately rile people up.

But while the former Tottenham midfielder refused to back down over his comments, Agbonlahor apologised to Johnson for what he said live on air and claimed his talkSPORT colleague was "out of order".

"What did I do wrong? It was Jamie that said 'cr*p for cr*p'," the former Aston Villa forward said.

"I want to apologise to Brennan Johnson. I could have not laughed, but when someone makes you laugh it's normal to start laughing.

"I thought Jamie O'Hara was out of order. I think Jamie needs to apologise. You can't say 'cr*p for cr*p'. I thought Jamie was out of order looking back at that now."

Johnson could make his debut for Everton in a friendly against Newcastle United on Wednesday evening.