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Manager Thomas Frank

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Are you Frank Out or In?

  • Total voters
    623
AberdeenYid said:
And that’s a fair assumption to make, particularly due to the success of Andrews in replacing him.

But there was none of this chat before we took Frank on. It was all about his improvement of players, keeping plucky Brentford in the league, etc. Even I, who didn’t want him here, was looking forward to seeing what he could do with our strikers, as he’d seemed to do so well with them in the past. Turns out it was fuck all.

Wrong players for him? Wrong manager for them? Be a mix of these. Just didn’t work here.
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I can’t find it but there’s this Brentford fan that’s gone back about 10 years about Brentford appointing either within or with no experience because of the way everything works.

There’s also suggestions that Frank kept asking the board who was supposed to do certain things that he was used to there’s doing for him, etc
 
Tomo said:
There is something fundamentally weird and quite frankly amateur when it comes to football journalism. Ange the maverick is terrible but Frank the lovely bloke is great. Frank has been objectively worse than Ange but the media defence has been strong.


View: https://x.com/khalilkayalkk/status/2023014238193901587?s=46&t=Gc6HrWVZT0mtSXU7r8ZBIQ
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Shows the double standards in the media, Ange never fit the mould for them because he was a confident, brash Aussie who came from SPL and even before he started giving it back to journalists there were already snide comments and hit pieces aimed at him. Meanwhile Frank was framed as the likeable underdog praised for doing more with less even when the expectations around him were completely different.

It seems to be a quintessentially British thing bigging up the underdog and almost celebrating a loser mentality whilst anyone who shows confidence or talks about ambition gets cut down for it. Ange came in talking about winning and changing standards and doing it his own way and instead of being backed for that mindset he was treated like he needed to be humbled from day one. Frank was the guy who is a victim of the terrible infrastructure at Tottenham and the 'impatient' fans, the media were happy to give him enough time so if he did start picking up results their confirmation bias would be completely justified.

One face fitted the other one didn't.
 
Murphy said:
I can’t find it but there’s this Brentford fan that’s gone back about 10 years about Brentford appointing either within or with no experience because of the way everything works.

There’s also suggestions that Frank kept asking the board who was supposed to do certain things that he was used to there’s doing for him, etc
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I did hear a rumour that he wanted to fine a player for being late for training, when he first arrived here, and didn’t know who he would report that to. Wasn’t aware that in almost every club, that’s the managers job.
 
Shadydan said:
Shows the double standards in the media, Ange never fit the mould for them because he was a confident, brash Aussie who came from SPL and even before he started giving it back to journalists there were already snide comments and hit pieces aimed at him. Meanwhile Frank was framed as the likeable underdog praised for doing more with less even when the expectations around him were completely different.

It seems to be a quintessentially British thing bigging up the underdog and almost celebrating a loser mentality whilst anyone who shows confidence or talks about ambition gets cut down for it. Ange came in talking about winning and changing standards and doing it his own way and instead of being backed for that mindset he was treated like he needed to be humbled from day one. Frank was the guy who is a victim of the terrible infrastructure at Tottenham and the 'impatient' fans, the media were happy to give him enough time so if he did start picking up results their confirmation bias would be completely justified.

One face fitted the other one didn't.
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Seems to be the way of things. I’ve been saying this in the Romero thread - we all have bias, so probably fair to expect it from the media. There’s a fair proportion of this forum that weren’t going to give Ange a chance from day one. They’ll deny it and splutter something about ear-cupping, but the bias was there. “He won stuff in Scotland? Anyone can do that”, “Fat Aussie cunt”, etc. Always on a loser with people who do this, as it takes more than it should to turn that initial bias around.

I know this because it’s what I was like with Frank. Didn’t like him, didn’t rate him, didn’t want him. He’d have had to go some for me to change my mind about him. Christ, I’d be watching his interviews, see him blink and think to myself, “blinks like a cunt. Wish he’d stop blinking. What’s he blinking for? Daft twat with his blinking. Is he breathing loud now? Loud breathing arsehole”. We would have been looking at title wins for me to rate the guy. Biased as fuck. We all are.
 
Tomo said:
There is something fundamentally weird and quite frankly amateur when it comes to football journalism. Ange the maverick is terrible but Frank the lovely bloke is great. Frank has been objectively worse than Ange but the media defence has been strong.


View: https://x.com/khalilkayalkk/status/2023014238193901587?s=46&t=Gc6HrWVZT0mtSXU7r8ZBIQ
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The funny thing is that Alyson Rudd article was written on December 14th 2024. At that time Forster was starting in goal and Gray and Dragusin were our CB's. We would go on to beat Southampton 0-5 the next day to move to 10th on the table with a GD of +17

By contrast, on December 14 2025 Spurs were thrashed 3-0 by Nottingham Forest to be 11th with a GD of +4.

So you can see the visible signs of improvement the down to earth Dane had already brought to the club that Alyson is perceptively picking up on. :cautious:
 
AberdeenYid said:
Seems to be the way of things. I’ve been saying this in the Romero thread - we all have bias, so probably fair to expect it from the media. There’s a fair proportion of this forum that weren’t going to give Ange a chance from day one. They’ll deny it and splutter something about ear-cupping, but the bias was there. “He won stuff in Scotland? Anyone can do that”, “Fat Aussie cunt”, etc. Always on a loser with people who do this, as it takes more than it should to turn that initial bias around.

I know this because it’s what I was like with Frank. Didn’t like him, didn’t rate him, didn’t want him. He’d have had to go some for me to change my mind about him. Christ, I’d be watching his interviews, see him blink and think to myself, “blinks like a cunt. Wish he’d stop blinking. What’s he blinking for? Daft twat with his blinking. Is he breathing loud now? Loud breathing arsehole”. We would have been looking at title wins for me to rate the guy. Biased as fuck. We all are.
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That's okay...we're fans we are allowed to have bias, the media are meant to be neutral not writing soap operas disguised as analysis.

I just read the article again and it's actually pissed me off, it sounds like it's a puff piece written by his wife :D
 
AberdeenYid said:
Seems to be the way of things. I’ve been saying this in the Romero thread - we all have bias, so probably fair to expect it from the media. There’s a fair proportion of this forum that weren’t going to give Ange a chance from day one. They’ll deny it and splutter something about ear-cupping, but the bias was there. “He won stuff in Scotland? Anyone can do that”, “Fat Aussie cunt”, etc. Always on a loser with people who do this, as it takes more than it should to turn that initial bias around.

I know this because it’s what I was like with Frank. Didn’t like him, didn’t rate him, didn’t want him. He’d have had to go some for me to change my mind about him. Christ, I’d be watching his interviews, see him blink and think to myself, “blinks like a cunt. Wish he’d stop blinking. What’s he blinking for? Daft twat with his blinking. Is he breathing loud now? Loud breathing arsehole”. We would have been looking at title wins for me to rate the guy. Biased as fuck. We all are.
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Quoted for truth.

And humour 😍
 
I've only just read the announcement for Tudor

Igor joins us with a clear focus: to improve performances, deliver results and move us up the Premier League table. His mandate is straightforward – bring organisation, intensity and competitive edge to the squad at a decisive stage of the campaign.

That's damning of Frank
 
Frank is far too timid for a decent club, he is probably fine with a club who's fans don't give a fuck as long as they stay in the Premier League, however we dont want to 'survive' and hang about , we want to compete
 
peter merison said:
Frank is far too timid for a decent club, he is probably fine with a club who's fans don't give a fuck as long as they stay in the Premier League, however we dont want to 'survive' and hang about , we want to compete
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I'm probably biased against him now but I reckon he's gonna struggle wherever he goes.

Being promoted internally when everyone at the club already knows/likes you as that affable floppy-haired assistant guy at a small Championship club like Brentford is just so different to walking into a club of established PL or top-tier players and winning them over.

Now he's been marked as a flop at Spurs I think players at other PL clubs will be wary of him too.

Reckon his best bet is going to a mid table club in Germany where clubs are, generally, set up a bit more like Brentford and the entire culture is a bit less individualistic. Plus his physical, transitional style might be more effective over there. I think he'll struggle in England if he ends up at a Palace/Fulham type club.
 
Timberwolf said:
I'm probably biased against him now but I reckon he's gonna struggle wherever he goes.

Being promoted internally when everyone at the club already knows/likes you as that affable floppy-haired assistant guy at a small Championship club like Brentford is just so different to walking into a club of established PL or top-tier players and winning them over.

Now he's been marked as a flop at Spurs I think players at other PL clubs will be wary of him too.

Reckon his best bet is going to a mid table club in Germany where clubs are, generally, set up a bit more like Brentford and the entire culture is a bit less individualistic. Plus his physical, transitional style might be more effective over there. I think he'll struggle in England if he ends up at a Palace/Fulham type club.
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How Brentford is flying now after he's gone is casting him in a light just as bad.
 
Shadydan said:
That's okay...we're fans we are allowed to have bias, the media are meant to be neutral not writing soap operas disguised as analysis.

I just read the article again and it's actually pissed me off, it sounds like it's a puff piece written by his wife :D
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Yeah it's genuinely shocking stuff. Most biased piece of journalism I've read in a long time.

That is why it was so beautiful at Brentford. Tottenham will have taught him what he already knew deep down, that not all clubs are patient or realistic.

Sorry we weren't patient or realistic enough for you Alyson, when your beloved Frankster had us down in 16th with the worst run of form in the league and 2 home wins all season.

I think a lot of it is pure fanfiction too. Saying the players had it easier under Ange and didn't like working hard under Frank, when other journos have cited club sources saying the players knew they could get away with not training as hard under Frank. A couple of other obvious digs at Ange in there too as well as the laughable notion that Frank is renowned for tiki-taka in Denmark and it's not his fault he couldn't play nice football at Spurs. Come the fuck on.

Would love to see the piece she'd write if Frank had come in and done even half as bad a job at her club Liverpool - she'd probably be accusing him of war-crimes and suggesting he's got a micropenis.
 
Timberwolf said:
Yeah - especially after losing Mbeumo and Wissa. Tons of people thought they'd get relegated this season.
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For balance, when Toney was banned for nine months Frank adapted and they actually scored more goals, spread across the squad.

We see the same cycle of posts every time we sack a manager- it’s always “them, not us”, right?
I don’t see Frank as a bad manager, just a poor fit for us. The players clearly stopped listening once things turned.

A bad manager doesn’t keep a low-budget side competitive across this many seasons - Brentford has had the lowest wage budget in not only the Premier League but also the Championship. Most teams promoted in that stretch were relegated almost immediately.
 
COYSinnit said:
For balance, when Toney was banned for nine months Frank adapted and they actually scored more goals, spread across the squad.

We see the same cycle of posts every time we sack a manager- it’s always “them, not us”, right?
I don’t see Frank as a bad manager, just a poor fit for us. The players clearly stopped listening once things turned.

A bad manager doesn’t keep a low-budget side competitive across this many seasons - Brentford has had the lowest wage budget in not only the Premier League but also the Championship. Most teams promoted in that stretch were relegated almost immediately.
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I think his next job will be the acid test - whether it was a 'big club' adaptation/cultural issue or a 'Frank' issue.

I'm probably being a bit harsh and maybe he'll do fine at the right club, but I do think there's a strong possibility Brenford's unique ecosystem has insulated his weaknesses and he might really struggle at any more 'normal' club.
 
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