The last time Thomas Frank was booed off like this at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, he compared this team to a “super-tanker” that he was turning “in the right direction”. But every Spurs fan can see the truth in front of them: this ship is taking on water and starting to sink.
There are only 12 Premier League games left this season. Tottenham are only five points above the relegation zone. They have won just two of their past 17 league games. They have not won a league game in 2026. Their rivals all have more momentum than they do. Twenty-nine points from 26 games is a position from which teams have been relegated in the past: Sunderland in 1996-97, Wimbledon in 1999-2000, and Blackpool in 2010-11. Every single red warning light should be flashing now.
With the situation this grave, only one question matters: how do Tottenham stay in the Premier League? It is not a question Spurs have had to consider for a generation, but the whole football club must now think about nothing else.
On a personal level, this was another disaster for Frank. The first half was as awful as anything Spurs have served up this season: vulnerable at the back, clueless with the ball, lucky to go in only 1-0 down to Newcastle United. There was another second-half fightback, but not with enough quality or conviction to get anything. It ended as the seventh home league defeat of his tenure.
The fans — who had sung Mauricio Pochettino’s name, and “sacked in the morning” during the second half — booed at the final whistle, booed Frank onto the pitch and booed him back off again. Any sense that the relationship between the Dane and the fans had been repaired by the win in Frankfurt or the draw with Manchester City has been ripped apart again.
Tottenham have not won a home league game since December 6 (Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Frank insisted afterwards that the situation is bigger than just him. He spoke, more bluntly than ever before, about the damaging injury situation at the club. He explained that while it is “easy to point” at him, ultimately “it is never only the head coach or the ownership or the directors or the players or the staff; it’s everyone”.
In an academic sense, he might be right. The story of how Tottenham got into this position is certainly more complicated than just Frank himself. As ever at Spurs, there is more than enough blame to go around. But the issue of relegation is also a profoundly bigger question than when exactly Frank gets sacked. Tottenham sack their manager almost every year. They have not been relegated since 1977. The historical scale is not the same.
Many of these questions are settled already. The jury is no longer out on whether Frank has done well at Spurs, whether he enjoys the support of the fans, or whether he should be in charge next season. All of those questions now feel resolved in the negative. But what really matters from here is what Spurs do between now and the end of May, and how they give themselves the best possible chance of staying up. Ange Postecoglou got sacked for finishing 17th, but that looks like an outcome the club would happily take now.
The question is whether the severity of the situation forces a rethink. It has felt for a while that Spurs’ patience with Frank pointed at least in part to their desire not to finish the season with a caretaker. Every club wants a smooth transfer from one permanent manager to the next. Spurs finished 2020-21 with Ryan Mason, and then 2022-23 with Cristian Stellini, and then Mason again. But those caretaker spells were ultimately palate cleansers, a welcome chance to reset the mood after first Jose Mourinho and then Antonio Conte had toxified the club.
This situation is different. Spurs do not merely need someone to come in and lift everyone’s spirits. They need someone to win some games. They need someone who can find a way to bail out the water and get the ship afloat again. They do not need to be perfect in the run-in. They do not need 20 or even 15 points. But they need to be much better than this.
For months now, the club has effectively bet that Frank — with his famed tactical pragmatism, his focus on clean sheets and set pieces — would at least be the man to guide them to safety. Who better for a battle than the man who repeatedly secured Brentford’s Premier League status? Part of the logic of Frank’s appointment was that even if his teams might not have the ceiling of Postecoglou’s side, his meticulous and realistic approach would mean a higher floor.
That argument has been demolished by the events of this season. Of course Spurs do not play dazzling possession football, but that was never part of the sell anyway. More to the point, this team is not efficient, not effective, not pragmatic, not solid, not flexible, and certainly not hard to beat. In short, it has none of the qualities Frank was meant to instill. And after two-thirds of a season in charge, that is enough time for people to make up their minds.
When Frank spoke afterwards, he insisted there were “a lot of studies” explaining how sacking the manager was not always the fix. And he is right that not every emergency fire-fighter appointment successfully puts out the flames. But at the same time, clubs know that once the January transfer window has shut, the only option left on the table is to change the manager. And the closer you get to the precipice, the more compelling, the more inevitable it is to pull the only lever available to you.
There is a huge unsolved question hanging over all of this, which is simply: then what? There are no obvious out-of-work managers to come in and take over. Nor is there an obvious internal candidate. John Heitinga, who only arrived to join Frank’s staff last month, is as plausible as it gets.
For so long, it felt as if removing Frank was a risk. Because whatever weaknesses he might have, however unconvincing he might be, he was still a safe pair of hands on the steering wheel. He offered a visible route through the choppy waters, away from the relegation disaster.
But there was an eerie sense of fear about the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday, a new level of nerves. As if the crowd all looked down in unison and saw that the water was coming up to their shins. If you think your ship is going down, why would you not want to change the man at the helm? Time is running out and survival is at stake.