JJ: "Seeing the manager's face, the emotion, it was too much for me"

Jermaine Jenas delivered commentary from the heart as he witnessed the amazing scenes of our Champions League semi-final triumph over Ajax.

The beauty of it all was ‘JJ’ barely had to say a word, caught up in the moment, you could just feel the emotion.

League Cup winner in 2008, UCL quarter-finalist in 2010/11, JJ played 202 times for us (25 in Europe) between 2005-2012.

Co-commentating alongside Darren Fletcher for BT Sport at the Johan Cruyff ArenA, he was left speechless as Lucas Moura scored his hat-trick goal in the sixth minute of added time to complete our footballing miracle. Trailing 3-0 on aggregate at half-time, we needed three goals to progress to the final. Lucas delivered on 55, 59 and 96 minutes, leaving everyone connected with the Club in dreamland.

Listening back to the commentary is a joy for all Spurs fans.

On Lucas’ hat-trick goal to take us through...

Darren Fletcher: “JJ is speechless, absolutely speechless, and so is everyone else in the stadium.”
JJ: “I can’t believe it Fletch, it’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like this. Oh my God.”

On the final whistle...

Darren Fletcher: “I’ve a co-commentator alongside me who wore the white shirt of Tottenham with pride for so long and I’ve never seen you as emotional as you are right now..."

There was no reply.

Swept up in the sheer enormity of what was unfolding in front of him, watching live and simultaneously close-up TV pictures on a monitor of players and fans celebrating and Mauricio Pochettino in tears, JJ was overwhelmed.

Speaking back in London on Thursday, JJ told us: “It gets deeper when you go back over the years and the journey this Club has been on.

“When I first signed it was very much a conversation along the lines of ‘we want to challenge for a Champions League position’. Our team played our part to try and kick the Club on a level and now this team, this manager and the chairman have taken it to an all new level.

“I had that moment last night when I thought ‘wow’.. the realisation of the achievement of everyone associated with the Club, above and beyond what anyone expected and seeing the manager’s face, the players, the emotion, it was too much for me at the time to get my words out.”

Look out for more on a night to remember from JJ, Jermain Defoe, Michael Dawson and legendary former skipper, twice UEFA Cup winner and our all-time record appearance-maker Steve Perryman on Friday...