Lord Alan Sugar took aim at Tottenham Hotspur as he criticised the candidates for picking their teams badly before his latest firing in The Apprentice.
The 78-year-old, who supports the Premier League football team, sacked AI product consultant Tanmay Hingorani on the BBC One business-themed reality show after his team lost the episode’s task.
At the beginning of the episode, each team was given either 25kg of chicken or egg and challenged to create two dishes based on their product – one to serve to the public, as well as bespoke canapes that appeal to corporate clients.
The teams were mixed, with Team Alpha tasked with creating chicken-based dishes while Team Eclipse were assigned eggs for the challenge.
Team Eclipse lost the task after making a profit of only £508.80 while Team Alpha won the task with their chicken pies, pulling in a profit of £742.67 – with Lord Sugar quipping that they “ended up making a decent crust”.
The losing team created a carbonara and, speaking about how the group came up with their dish, team leader Carrington Saunders said: “I don’t eat eggs, Kieran doesn’t eat cheese and Lawrence can’t eat pork. It was only Priyesh who can eat everything.”
Lord Sugar criticised their food choice and said: “Carrington’s in charge who doesn’t like eggs – it’s like putting a nun in charge of Tinder.”
He added: “Bearing in mind the dietary constraints, it was a worse team selection than Spurs would pick, if you ask me.”
During the boardroom meeting at the end of the episode, the candidates also argued over not being able to boil an egg, which Lord Sugar called a “disgrace”.
At the end of the episode, Lord Sugar told Hingorani: “I’ve decided that the real culprit in this particular one is somebody who has interfered with negotiations. And so, it is with regret… Tanmay, you’re fired.”
He went on to describe Saunders as a “good talker”, adding that he will be “keeping an eye” on her.
Hingorani, who was sacked after a negotiation with the corporate client went wrong, said he was “disappointed” to have left the show.
He said: “I absolutely think Lord Sugar made a mistake, I think I’ve got a lot to prove in the tech world. But you win some, you lose some.”
Hingorani would have created an AI-powered digital loyalty and marketing platform that aims to revolutionise how food and drink businesses connect with their customers if he had won the programme.
The latest series of The Apprentice will see its winner awarded £250,000 worth of investment into their company and the opportunity to go into business with Lord Sugar.
The Apprentice returns on BBC One next Thursday at 9pm.
