Thomas Frank has been sacked by Tottenham after seven disastrous months in charge.
The Dane was named as Ange Postecoglou’s replacement last summer following the Aussie’s sacking hours after he delivered the Europa League trophy and returned the club to Champions League football. But Spurs finished 17th and his style of football and poor results were deemed unsustainable.
The same has now happened to Frank, after he left Brentford to make the move across London but was unable to turn the club’s form around, with Spurs floundering in 16th in the table. And The Athletic report he has now been sacked following another crushing defeat at home against Newcastle United.
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The Athletic’s David Ornstein wrote on X: “Thomas Frank sacked as Tottenham Hotspur head coach. #THFC working through various possible contingency plans to replace 52yo Dane as club sit 14th in Premier League – 5 points above relegation zone after 2 wins from 17 matches.”
The Press Association also reported that it understood the former Brentford boss had been relieved of his duties. Following the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle on Tuesday night, Frank had side he was ‘1,000% sure’ he was still the right man for Tottenham – and also insisted he was ‘convinced’ he would be in charge against Arsenal in the North London derby on February 22.
He said: “I understand it’s easy to point at me. But I also think it’s never only the head coach or the ownership or the directors or the players or the staff. It’s everyone.”
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Quizzed on whether he now fears being dismissed, he said: “I spoke to them [the owners] yesterday so no.” When asked if he was still confident he could wrestle back the tide, Frank added: “I’m 1,000% sure.
“I’m also 1,000% sure that I never expected us to be in a situation like this with 11, now 12 injuries, on the back end of this. But I know when you need to build something and you need to get through things, you need to show unbelievably strong resilience.
“I think you need to have a calm head, carry on, keep fighting, keep doing the right thing, make sure we stick together, because you can only get through this together.”
When asked whether there was any panic inside Tottenham about the prospect of being threatened with relegation, Frank replied: “We, of course, understand we’re not in a good situation, but with everything in life, you need to stay calm, keep doing it and keep going.”
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Pushed further on the possibility of being sacked, Frank added: “I understand the mechanism in football, no doubt about that. But I also think there’s a lot of studies that it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.
“I know it’s the only movement they have, but there’s also plenty of situations where it’s not the right thing to do.”
Frank had averaged 1.12 points-per-game as Tottenham boss in the Premier League – 29 points in 26 games – the lowest rate of any Spurs manager with more than five games in the competition.