‘THIS IS BEST WAY TO LEARN’
Defender O’Hora on MK experience
RISING star Warren O’Hora has urged Premier League youngsters to ditch the comfort zone and sample the real world.
The 22-year-old has been in exceptional form for an MK Dons side that, pre-weekend, had won seven of their last ten games to surge into the League One promotion fight.
Since turning a loan move from Premier
League Brighton into a permanent switch in January last year, the
Irish centre-back has played 58 times and has hardly missed a minute of the current campaign.
Asked whether he would be the same player had he festered in Brighton’s development team, O’Hora is unequivocal.
“No chance,” says the Dubliner, who joined the Seagulls from home-town club Bohemians in 2018. “Absolutely no way. I’m 100 per cent sure of that.
“No disrespect to that Under-23 league - it got me to where I am. But in terms of development, it’s night and day compared to playing regular first-team football.
“That’s when you really see what you need to do to survive in the industry. When there’s three points on the table every week, when there’s fans invested in your performance - that’s when you understand that it’s your job, your responsibility.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done and I’d tell anybody in the Under-23s to get out, as soon as they can and as often as they can.”
Not every Premier League youngster finds the transition so easy, of course, but O’Hora believes he was helped by his relatively humble roots in Irish football.
“You do see boys who struggle after coming out of the development league,” he says. “Nothing against them, but you do get everything given to you at that age, and it can be hard to adjust.
“But I was 18 by the time I got to Brighton. I wasn’t in an academy at a young age, and I think that really helped me coming on loan to MK.
“Quite honestly, though, I just felt really happy. I fitted in with all the lads, I enjoyed the type of football we played. The fans were great. Everything just clicked and I think that’s why I’ve managed to play so much.”
That style - an almost zealous retention of possession was pioneered by former Norwich full-back Russell Martin, who was lured away to join Swansea just days before the current season kicked off. The Dons were widely expected to struggle in his absence but replacement Liam Manning has surpassed all expectations.
The 36-year-old, who previously worked for Sheikh Mansour’s City Group and enjoyed managerial success in Belgium, has won 50 per cent of his matches and O’Hora says the MK squad have been blown away by his methods.
Unbelievable
“Liam and his team have been unbelievable,” says the defender. “You really can’t underplay how impressive they’ve been. He came in, didn’t really know the squad, but just struck a chord straightaway.
“He said ‘Listen, you’re all good players, you know what to do, I’m just going to tweak the style a bit and we’ll go from there’.
“We still want to play out from the back, we still keep possession. That’s what we’re good at and that’s why the majority of players were signed, so it makes sense to make that your foundation.
“But we’re more defensively solid this season. That’s what Liam’s worked on and he’s got to take a lot of credit for the way the lads have put it out there on the pitch.
“We’ve had meetings, presentations in the lecture theatre. It’s been relentless on that side of things, but you can see now how much it’s helped us on the pitch.
“That’s what you need if you want to be a Championship team, and if you don’t want to put in the hours then you shouldn’t be here.
“We’ve all bought in from the first minute the gaffer walked through the door and told us he wanted promotion.”