Let's be Frank

 The conundrum

Imagine you’re Daniel Levy. First of all you’re accused of running Spurs like a business, which is deemed as a bad thing. Secondly, your “business” is constantly mocked at for not being successful, for not winning major football trophies. Then 21^st May happens and suddenly Spurs are European Champions, winning their first major European trophy. You wake up the next morning, head a little sore from the celebrations of last night, and boom, there’s Jumbo (insert whatever elephant name you fancy) sat in the corner of the room. What the hell to do, with Ange Postecoglou?

On the one hand, you look at the extremely poor league form throughout the season and deem that 17th place is absolutely unacceptable for a club of Spurs’ stature, spending power and squad. On the other hand, you smile gleefully as you remember the events of last night (albeit not the dreadful game itself) and note that Ange is the one who made all that happen. The one who promised a trophy in his second season, and then the one who delivered it. The one who cemented himself as a Spurs legend. The most difficult decisions in life are the ones where you have a rational side pulling you one way, and an emotional one pulling you the other.

In the end, you decide to be rational. Perhaps you saw what happened to Manchester United when they decided to keep Erik Ten Hag after a poor season culminated in an FA Cup win the season prior. Manchester United were, arguably, the only team to have a worse season than Spurs last season. And so the legend, Ange Postecoglou leaves. It was around two years ago my first blog was uploaded, and this was a deep dive on Spurs and the optimism around Ange Postecoglou’s appointment, and here I am, two years later, a full cycle of Ange-ball later. Ange is no longer at the helm, and Spurs have plumped for Brentford’s Thomas Frank. Let’s get into that.

 

The Challenge

 

Thomas Frank arrives at Spurs with the club in limbo. Bizarrely, Frank takes on a club which is on a high from their Europa League win and simultaneously reeling from a disastrous Premier League campaign. Whilst he will do incredibly well (or awfully) to not improve on Spurs’ 17th placed finish in the Premier League, I can’t imagine he will reach the highs of the Europa League win in his first campaign at the club.

Spurs fans were split on whether to keep Ange or sack him. Thomas “the Frank engine” (as is his apparent nickname) will need to start fast to endear himself to the Spurs faithful. It’s a good job he won 1 game in his first 10 games in his first coaching job at Brondby and then managed a whole 1 win in his first 10 games at Brentford. Errrr right, ok then. He will also have to manage with Spurs having let talisman Son-Heung Min leave to the States and James Maddison having incurred a bad injury in pre-season.

Frank will also face the prospect of multiple games in a week for the first time in his career. Spurs’ entry into the Champions League brings revenue, excitement and opportunity, however it also brings with it a minimum of 8 extra games and the potential for even more should they qualify for the knockout stages, which will surely be a realistic target for them. Coaching at Brentford is one thing, where he and the players have a whole week to prepare for each Premier League game, however it’s a whole other level having to juggle between competitions which you’ll be expected to go far into.

Frank is also the most recent head-coach to take the step up from high-achieving mid-table club to one of the “Big 6”. Recent alumni include Graham Potter at Chelsea, Nuno Esperito Santo at Spurs. The scrutiny on the head-coach at Brentford when they lose a game or two is nothing compared to what it’s like at a bigger club like Spurs. Each defeat comes with an inquest. It’s perhaps the Graham Potter example that draws the most parallels here. Both Frank and Potter have left well ran clubs which try to pride themselves on operating coherently and successfully with a head-coach in place, as opposed to the head-coach simply running the show. Brighton have actually progressed since Potter’s departure, whereas his own failure at Chelsea saw his stock take a beating.

The point here is Frank has left an orchestra where the strings, brass and percussion all play off the same hymn sheet. Whether Frank and the other musicians at Spurs are all in tune, we’ll find out.

 

Let’s be Frank

So, just why have Spurs plumped for Frank as the guy to replace Ange? Well, firstly, he’s someone who gets more out of players than a lot of head-coaches and managers. There is a strong correlation between a club’s wage bill and their league position. By that metric, Brentford who had the 19^th highest wage bill in the Premier League should be playing championship football this season. Despite having the 19^th highest wage-bill in the Premier League, Brentford finished 10^th last season, which meant they were the highest over-achieving club in the league. Since Brentford’s promotion to the top flight, they have been a selling club and despite this and their low wage bill, Frank has steered Brentford to Premier League sustainability with 13^th, 9^th, 16^th and 10^th placed finishes.

Levy will be hoping Frank can repeat the small miracles he performed at Brentford at the higher level, getting the most out of an exciting crop of younger players at Spurs. Despite having such a talented group of younger players, only have the 7^th highest wage bill in the league, meaning Frank will need to overachieve to get Spurs into European places, particularly the Champions League. Getting the most out of the resources available was a criticism levied at Ange Postecoglou and predecessors, but it certainly cannot have been levied at Frank.

 

Flexible

Unlike predecessors Ange, Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho, Frank isn’t wedded to one particular philosophy and one way of playing. Frank started off his Brentford reign by playing a possession based 4-3-3 in the Championship where Brentford were ranked in the top five for average possession and were the top scorers in both seasons. Upon promotion to the Premier League, Frank acknowledged he and Brentford would be up against it trying to implement this possession football at this level. So, they adapted. I know, it’s a crazy concept. Brentford switched from a 4-3-3 formation to a organised 5-3-2, and have since tried their luck with a 4-4-2 and a 4-2-3-1. Since promotion, Brentford conceded possession and became an organised team that played more direct to Ivan Toney and prioritised scoring goals from set pieces. Having stabilised for three seasons, the sale of striker Ivan Toney last summer presented Frank with a problem of not having a target man. No big man, no problem. In came the diminutive Bryan Mbuemo and Yoann Wissa at 5ft 7 and 5ft 9 respectively and Brentford become a counter-attacking team that can also play.

That, there, is the evolution of the team that Frank has overseen and this resulted in the most recent 10th placed finish for Brentford who, let’s not forget, have the 19th highest wage budget. Pragmatic is a word that is often used to beat people with, and yet perhaps we should celebrate pragmatism more than mock it. To describe Frank as pragmatic should not be a criticism but instead a celebration of someone who overcomes challenges with simple, good coaching.

 

Will it work?

Now comes the challenge, can tactical flexibility and adaptation be replicated at a much bigger club? As we know, the demands at Spurs are different than they are at Brentford. The Spurs faithful won’t put up with “pragmatic” football when facing lesser opposition. Going away to Arsenal and being pragmatic to get a result is one thing, but a failure to then switch to beat a Burnley at home is another. What it should, however mean, is conceding 4 to Wolves, 3 to Everton and 5 to Liverpool such as Spurs did in early 2025 should become a thing of the past. Just how Frank strikes the overall balance will be key.

Spurs fans and Levy will hope Frank’s arrival will oversee a steady evolution of progress. This isn’t a quick hire and fire of Mourinho or Conte in the hope a trophy can be picked up before it all blows up. This also isn’t a flag-in-the-sand appointment of a philosophy manger such as Postecoglou. This is a sensible appointment of a very good coach who’s shown he can get a lot from a little and evolve a football club. Someone who dares to dream, but won’t promise it will come true. In fact, in his pragmatic honesty, Frank has promised the Spurs fans: “one thing is 100% sure, we will lose football matches”.

I’ll leave it at that.