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Manager Thomas Frank

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Are you Frank Out or In?

  • Total voters
    623
Harry Vaginola said:
i preferred wanyama and dier not playing at the same time and bringing on another attacker. i think we were at our best with 4231 and the defensive mid would drop into defense when the fb's got forward. it's kinda horses for courses tho
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The funny thing was, you'd think dropping an attacker to bring Dier into the backline would be a defensive change to bolster us against better opponents, perhaps away from home.

But when Poch went to a back 3 in reality (which wasn't all that often), was mostly at home against weaker sides.

Yet those were some of the most dominant performances I have ever seen from Spurs. All those elite game-readers and tacklers playing the aggressive stifling counterpress of early Poch, on that little WHL pitch, those poor opponents couldn't string two passes together, the ball just kept coming back towards them, it was magnificent to watch.
 
Back 3 means you have less technical players in the team . A lot of the times under Poch we only played with three proper attacking players. Just like we did under Conte.
It's impossible to play entertaining football like that.
It can work if used occasionally- and that's fine .
 
Mrs Perryman said:
166 pages so far, can we have a sweepstake to how many pages we get to before we confirm / deny Thomas' appointment? At least that will make the waiting a bit more bearable.
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My guess...86 pages!

The Office Nbc GIF
 
Micky Bubbles said:
There's considerable difference between finishing 7th and 17th - one is a team heading in the right direction and the other is the opposite, assuming 17th to 7th for Frank vs 5th to 17th for Ange
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As has been repeated umpteen times there's context around that 17 th finish.

So once again for the viewers at home: lots of fucking injuries, no fucking consistency in the line-up meaning no fucking momentum could be built even when fucking players returned, competing in 4 fucking competitions, foregoing the fucking league to focus on winning the fucking Europa and the best fucking pathway to the fucking Champions League football.

You don't win the league with fucking Davies and Gray as your fucking CB pairing.

NB: I'm writing this in my Thomas Frank Danish-English inner monologue hence all the "fucking". You should too.
 
CPH_Spurs said:
Ange ball was real. Only it disappeared when Chris Davies started taking a step back ever since he started getting offers from Jan 2024 onwards

In all honesty, we have not really played with inverted fullbacks 'properly' since he left. In 2024/25, we played a water down version of it. Porro & Udogie used to be so much involved in build up phase so much in Ange first 6-8 months. But after that, we dont have a buildup phase.
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It was mentioned that there was a club review were the coaching and medical management was an issue so the club appears to have learned by seeking Frank and his coaching staff and physios to come wit him. Football management is no longer a one man show.
 
Charlie F said:
Back 3 means you have less technical players in the team . A lot of the times under Poch we only played with three proper attacking players. Just like we did under Conte.
It's impossible to play entertaining football like that.
It can work if used occasionally- and that's fine .
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Yeah, the Poch side wasn't as swashbuckling as rose tinted glasses would have you believe.

At it's best it was incredibly efficient, but there were loads of games where it would have been nice to just go for the jugular rather than be content with a 2 or 3 goal lead.

It's a minor nitpick, as it was probably the sensible approach, but as a fan I'm greedy and I felt at times we could have been more ruthless and demolished sides. Those Leicester and Hull games at the end of the 2nd place season were glorious, and sadly probably the point where we had peaked under him.
 
spids said:
And yet there are still 6 or 7 teams who invest more. Wages is the best predictor of league position. We only spend 40% of revenue on player wages.
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Agree, but Spurs also have a huge loan they are paying off for the stadium. The fact is, that Spurs have made a loss for the last 5 seasons.

Being back in the Champions League this season; and winning the trophy will put Spurs firmly back into profit - which makes it even more baffling that they fired the 1 man that achieved what so many others couldn't.

2019/20
-63.9
Loss due to COVID-19 impact, reduced matchday revenue, and stadium depreciation.

2020/21
-80.2
Significant loss due to games played behind closed doors, minimal match receipts (£1.9m).

2021/22
-50.1
Loss reduced by 40% from prior year, driven by increased match receipts (£106.1m) and commercial revenue (£183.5m).

2022/23
-86.8
Increased loss despite revenue growth to £549.6m, due to higher operating expenses and lower player sale profits.

2023/24
-26.2
Loss decreased significantly, with operational profit (EBITDA) at £144.9m, supported by commercial revenue (£255.2m).
 
Harry Vaginola said:
i disagree unless you count the cdm role dropping back into defense as 3 atb. rose and walker got forward very effectively but i think the assists were coming from the midfielders. but we did play a pure 3 cb's formation at times that was very good
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Lloris
Dier / Toby / Jan
Walker (or Trippier) / Wanyama / Dembele / Rose (or Davies)
Eriksen / Dele
Kane​
.....Nah; assists were rarely coming from Vic & Moussa.

Spurs fans having an aversion to 3atTheBack is silly.
 
harry7 said:
Agree, but Spurs also have a huge loan they are paying off for the stadium. The fact is, that Spurs have made a loss for the last 5 seasons.

Being back in the Champions League this season; and winning the trophy will put Spurs firmly back into profit - which makes it even more baffling that they fired the 1 man that achieved what so many others couldn't.

2019/20
-63.9
Loss due to COVID-19 impact, reduced matchday revenue, and stadium depreciation.

2020/21
-80.2
Significant loss due to games played behind closed doors, minimal match receipts (£1.9m).

2021/22
-50.1
Loss reduced by 40% from prior year, driven by increased match receipts (£106.1m) and commercial revenue (£183.5m).

2022/23
-86.8
Increased loss despite revenue growth to £549.6m, due to higher operating expenses and lower player sale profits.

2023/24
-26.2
Loss decreased significantly, with operational profit (EBITDA) at £144.9m, supported by commercial revenue (£255.2m).
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The ‘huge loan’ equates to a 30M annual payment which is minor based on the increased revenue: this should be offset by the 15 concerts and events in commercial revenue increases, let alone match day.

Are the losses the full picture though? Difficult to know what are included in the costs
 
Suppose all coaches are relative to the cause but what exactly is Thomas Frank, is he a winner, what has he won? Why did Levy choose him or who makes the decision. I thought they would go for a more advanced coach but they also failed so I don't know anymore.
 
Teach said:
The ‘huge loan’ equates to a 30M annual payment which is minor based on the increased revenue: this should be offset by the 15 concerts and events in commercial revenue increases, let alone match day.

Are the losses the full picture though? Difficult to know what are included in the costs
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Also worth noting that Spurs had to write off loses to Ndombelly(60m), Lo Celso (50m), Reggie (25m), Sessegnon(25m), Moura (25m), Lamela (30m), Aurier (25m), Sissoko (30m)

Thats almost 300m spent on players that were allowed to leave for free (or just 5m in Lo Celso's case).

Absolutely shocking performance in the managing the squad and transfers, and it's a miracle that Levy wasn't relieved of his duties
 
harry7 said:
Also worth noting that Spurs had to write off loses to Ndombelly(60m), Lo Celso (50m), Reggie (25m), Sessegnon(25m), Moura (25m), Lamela (30m), Aurier (25m), Sissoko (30m)

Thats almost 300m spent on players that were allowed to leave for free (or just 5m in Lo Celso's case).

Absolutely shocking performance in the managing the squad and transfers, and it's a miracle that Levy wasn't relieved of his duties
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How much has he written off hiring and firing managers as well?

Has to be close to 100m
 
Spuraman said:
Suppose all coaches are relative to the cause but what exactly is Thomas Frank, is he a winner, what has he won? Why did Levy choose him or who makes the decision. I thought they would go for a more advanced coach but they also failed so I don't know anymore.
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He's a wingnut. That's all you need to know at this point in time. Wait & see, as Asquith said, as my old Mum used to say. The future can be either beautiful or frightening or neither, but none of us knows what it holds.
To answer one of your questions, Levy will have taken advice from his trusted colleagues and there is a Board of Directors too (probably not involved until the deal's pretty much done?), but the final decision is probably his - even if it's not, he's the one we blame, isn't he?
Why did Levy choose him? Because The Post had to go and Levy felt that Frank was the best 'available' coach for the job - pretty much the opposite of the approach to coaching we've suffered over the past 2 years. Levy probably likes the cut of Frank's jib (I do too). As I said earlier - time will tell, be patient.

All we can do is be hopeful - hopeful that the deal will be done before bloody Christmas.

ps I like your left-handed, multi-armed avatar angel, even if he's wearing the wrong kit!
 
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