Thomas Frank and the Reality of Managing Tottenham

From the look of it, relieving Thomas Frank of the Tottenham Hotspur job is a move that has long been coming.

The north London club are 16th on the Premier League table, just 6 points from the bottom three. Among other unwanted stats, the team recorded just two wins in their last 17 games and have not won a league match since the turn of the year.

Only a week ago, the team made an impressive comeback to earn a point after a two-goal deficit against Manchester City (a mixed result for some of the fanbase who believe it aids Arsenal’s title push).

The Athletic reports that Thomas Frank took over the team to bring stability, but his stint became more unpopular with each match. Players like Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence walked out on him, specifically during a 1–0 loss to Chelsea in November. He also had issues with Yves Bissouma, and even 20-year-old Matthys Tel reportedly “came to blows” with the former Brentford manager at some point.

To some unforgiving fans, the coach’s days became numbered from the moment he was seen drinking from an Arsenal-branded cup at the Vitality Stadium, in a match Spurs lost 3–2 to the hosts.

Arsenal are everything Tottenham wish they were. Mikel Arteta’s side are at the top end of the log and Spurs are closer to relegation with just 12 matches left to play.

Not to mention their rivalry that is as old as both clubs. The reactions that followed the Danish manager’s action were the least to expect from the fanbase.

“It’s a little bit sad that I need to be asked about it. I would never [deliberately] do something that stupid,” he later told reporters, when asked about it.

But how fair was the Tottenham Hotspur board to sack Thomas Frank, who on Tuesday night, after 2–1 home defeat to Newcastle United, insisted he would remain in charge at the club to face the Gunners in their next match?

The Mixed Fortunes of Frank’s Spurs Tenure

Perhaps what kept the coach in the job until Tuesday night were issues beyond his control. There were times he had only about 13 available outfield players to select from. Starters like James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski were sidelined with long-term injuries throughout his short reign. In the league, neither player featured for Spurs due to knee injuries during his tenure.

The injury crisis and suspensions contributed to a poor run of form and made his work harder. Against Newcastle United, for example, 11 players were absent for the match. Yet losing that match meant the time was up for Frank, who won a record 200 matches while at Brentford.

Spurs had a tough time in the domestic cups, getting knocked out of the EFL Cup by Newcastle in the fourth round and the FA Cup by Aston Villa in the third round.

Somehow, his fortune was different in Europe.

Under Thomas Frank, Tottenham enjoyed a brilliant campaign in the Champions League. In the league phase of UCL, Frank led the team to a fourth-place finish, winning all home games to secure a top-eight finish.

The only fixture the team lost was a 5-3 away defeat to the reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), a loss that is excusable by some standard.

Yet, these were not enough for a traditional Top six team like Spurs, who expected the squad—though clearly depleted—to be firing from all cylinders.

Challenges Behind the Scenes

A way to look at the situation is that the results do not tell the full story. This is not the first manager that has left the club under rather interesting circumstances.

It appears there are still traces of some of the issues that culminated in club chairman, Daniel Levy, eventually leaving the club in September last year, after nearly 25 years.

Though the English businessman transformed the club financially, his departure was understood to be from a perceived widening gap between commercial success and a lack of better management.

It appears the club is still dealing with whatever rot these issues have caused. For instance, Ange Postecoglou whom Thomas Frank succeeded, has been talking since the recent sack.

“It's a curious club, Tottenham,” the Australian manager told reporters recently.

“It’s made a major pivot at the end of last year, not just with me, but with Daniel [Levy] leaving as well. And you've created this whole sort of environment of uncertainty because there's no guarantees, no matter which manager you bring in - you've had world-class managers there that haven't had success. But for what reason? What was the reason for such a major pivot

"So Thomas is walking in, and what's his objective? What's the club's objective? At the start of the year, they said, compete on all fronts. Well, the club hasn't competed on all fronts for a very long time.

"And the most influential person at the club for the last 20 years is also going. So if you're going to do such a major pivot, then you've got to understand there's going to be some instability there.”

Thomas Frank’s time at Tottenham shows the difficulties any manager faces at a club in transition. How the club rebuilds after his departure may define the next chapter for both manager and team.