Thomas Frank claimed he had “close to the perfect football life” during his time with Brentford. He spent nearly seven years in charge of the west London club and, apart from Pep Guardiola, no manager in the Premier League could come close to matching his job security.
None of that has proven to be true at Tottenham Hotspur. He has been sacked by the north London club after eight months in charge following a run of just two league wins in 17 Premier League matches against a backdrop of growing discontent from supporters.
The Dane joined Brentford in December 2016 as an assistant before being promoted to head coach two years later. He led them to the Premier League in 2021 and they did not spend a single day in the relegation zone across four seasons under Frank. There were two top-half finishes and memorable victories over Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea.
He had a fantastic relationship with owner Matthew Benham, director of football Phil Giles, the squad, staff, and fans. In May 2024, he held conversations with Manchester United and Chelsea about becoming their head coach. During an interview with The Athletic in the same month, Frank said: “I’m aware the grass is not greener in the garden next door, even if it looks like it. Then you get in there, take a closer look, and see a lot of weeds in the grass.”
Frank sacrificed his “perfect football life” in June when he replaced Ange Postecoglou as Spurs’ head coach. This was the opportunity the 52-year-old had been waiting and working for. He was taking over a squad with untapped potential who had won the club’s first major trophy since 2008, but a team that had underperformed with a 17th-place league finish.
Postecoglou won Spurs a trophy, but was still sacked for his poor league performance (Crystal Pix/Getty Images)
The weeds were there for all to see, but with the right care and attention, Frank believed, Tottenham’s garden could blossom. His reign started positively but quickly unravelled and it was no surprise he was sacked after their defeat to Newcastle United.
Frank’s failure to bond with the Tottenham fanbase cost him. Postecoglou’s fast start in 2023, including dramatic victories at home over Sheffield United and Liverpool, helped the fans fall in love with him. It was an intoxicating sense of excitement and although this eventually faded, many supporters clung on to the belief those halcyon days could return. By way of contrast, Frank won twice in 13 Premier League home matches and rarely played the kind of football that set pulses racing.
Tottenham’s awful home form is an issue that predates Frank — they have won five league games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, stretching back to November 2024 — but he never came close to fixing it. They drew 1-1 with a Wolverhampton Wanderers side that took just one other point from their first 13 matches. They lost at home for the third season in a row against bitter rivals Chelsea, with Frank’s side recording an expected goals (xG) of 0.1, the lowest total by any team in the top flight this season… until Tottenham’s 4-1 defeat at Arsenal three weeks later.
A win over Manchester United after two late goals should have been the moment that united Frank and the fans, but a lapse of concentration from a corner allowed Matthijs de Ligt to equalise in the 96th minute.
Frank’s fragile relationship with the crowd was not helped by a defeat to Fulham (previously winless on the road) in which his team were 2-0 down inside six minutes. Describing their treatment of Guglielmo Vicario, who was jeered after his mistake led to Harry Wilson’s decisive goal, as “unacceptable” and saying that “they can’t be true Tottenham fans” went down poorly.
That was nothing compared to the reaction after the defeat to West Ham United in January. But the most damaging episode was the supporters chanting “you’re getting sacked in the morning” and singing the name of their former head coach Mauricio Pochettino during the second half of their loss to Newcastle.
Spurs fans were unimpressed with the defeat to Fulham (Mark Leech/Getty Images)
Frank’s biggest strength at Brentford turned out to be his fatal flaw with Spurs. He constantly tinkered with their formation and starting line-ups. It has been harder to implement tactical plans at Spurs because their time on the training ground is impacted by midweek Champions League games. But even when Spurs had an entire week to prepare for a game, as they did before the home defeat to West Ham, they usually still looked largely aimless and lost.
“It’s limited with what you can coach, how many meetings and how much individual time you can have with the players because it’s just pure recovery as well, but again, it’s just the way it is,” Frank said before the 2-2 draw away to Newcastle United in December. “We need to find a way. Every good team, they found out they have seven, eight, nine players to play when it’s the top matches, if that makes sense, and that is what we are searching for. We need to rotate to make sure we have enough intensity and freshness.”
Frank’s lack of European experience was flagged up during the interview process, which is why Spurs surrounded him with assistant coaches who had worked for teams competing in the Champions League and Europa League, including Fabian Otte, Liverpool’s goalkeeping coach in 2024-25, and former Arsenal and Manchester United set-piece specialist Andreas Georgson. They have reached the last 16 of the Champions League but have performed woefully domestically.
Before he was appointed, Frank enquired about Spurs’ injury problems last season. They had fewer soft-tissue muscle problems in the early months of the season but they have increased rapidly in recent weeks. They had 10 senior players unavailable against Newcastle due to injury and the suspended Cristian Romero. They have also been without Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison all season. The pair did not play a competitive minute under Frank due to long-term knee injuries.
Club-record signing Dominic Solanke has been restricted to seven league appearances due to a persistent ankle issue, returning for the FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa. With Son Heung-min leaving in the summer to join Los Angeles FC, Frank was unable to call on a quartet of players who scored 49 goals for Spurs last season.
Senior figures at Spurs made a series of poor decisions that did not help. The uncertainty over whether they would be competing in the Champions League this season or have no European football at all impacted their ability to act swiftly in the summer transfer market. Taking two weeks before deciding to sack Postecoglou only truncated this.
Frank wanted to sign Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford but, by the time he had been appointed in mid-June, Mbeumo had decided he wanted to join Manchester United.
Spurs explored a move for Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, but baulked at the £70million ($92m) asking price and switched their attention to Mohammed Kudus of West Ham. Kudus has impressed, at times, but is now injured too. When Spurs returned for Semenyo in January, he decided to join Manchester City.
Frank had to make do without Maddison and Kulusevski (Paul Harding/Getty Images)
It is not Frank’s fault that Morgan Gibbs-White, who had wanted to join Spurs, performed a U-turn and signed an improved contract with Nottingham Forest.
The club mishandled negotiations with Crystal Palace’s chairman, Steve Parish, over Eberechi Eze. Eze was keen to rejoin his boyhood club Arsenal, but they did not ramp up their interest until Kai Havertz suffered a knee injury in August. Spurs wasted their opportunity.
Spurs signed Xavi Simons, but he was always going to take time to adapt to the Premier League. Tottenham’s squad is filled with talented, young players, but they need proven quality and experience around them. Although they added Conor Gallagher to the mix in January, many fans believed they needed more.
Just like Postecoglou, losing to Chelsea at home was the moment things started to unravel for Frank. In stoppage time, Vicario played a short free kick to Djed Spence instead of launching the ball into the box in search of an equaliser, which prompted the crowd to boo. At full time, Spence and Micky van de Ven ignored Frank’s plea for them to applaud the supporters and walked straight down the tunnel. Spurs should have been galvanised by winning the Europa League, but that defeat exposed the disconnect between the head coach, players and fans. Frank’s reputation never recovered, and Spurs never regained momentum.
Frank had other, unexpected hurdles to navigate, including the abrupt departure of Daniel Levy in September after 24 years as executive chairman. Fabio Paratici returned as co-sporting director with Johan Lange in October. In the middle of January, Spurs announced Paratici would be leaving for Fiorentina. Chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham has spoken openly about the challenges ahead. Spurs have undergone a huge amount of change at senior level over the past six months and the lack of stability has not helped.
After the defeat to West Ham, Frank said Spurs were a “super tanker turning in the right direction” and that “there are a lot of good things behind the scenes.” After the Newcastle defeat, Frank said he was “convinced” he would be in charge for the next game against Arsenal on February 22 and he was “1000 per cent sure” he was still the right person to be in charge. Senior figures at the club clearly disagreed.
For both Tottenham Hotspur and Thomas Frank, the grass was not greener.