The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
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.
thefightingcock.co.uk
Managers preceding Frank and Brentord, where are they now?:
Dean Smith - Got his big step up to Villa, failed and was improved upon by Steven Gerrad. Norwich, Leicester and now Charlotte FC
Lee Carsley / Marinus Dijkhuizen - Marnius was a permanent hire, w2 d2 l5 - replaced with Carsley as interim - flop from the beginning
Mark Warburton - Rangers 2015-2017, Forest 2017, QPR 2019-22
Uwe Rosler - Wigan, Leeds, Fleetwood, Malmo, Fortuna Dusseldorf all for one season only, AGF 2022-25 and now VfL Bochum
Thomas Frank has so far followed this pattern by lasting 8 months in his big step up role...
I think Brentford are a pretty unique club. We have seen absolute nobodies given the job there (look at Andrews now) and theyve done well, looked good, raised lots of plaudits, "earned their right to a big job" and flopped. Its too much of a pattern to be ignored.
Small detail, but it was reported Frank wanted to know who to talk to about player discipline, not realising in 99% of clubs - it would be him. I find it very telling.
He was allowed to amass a very large back room team, unusual for a smaller club. EVERYTHING, it would seem, was handled for him - even down to player discipline. Its not even clear to me what involvement, if any, he had in things like recruitment.
In terms of being A MANAGER, he is clearly unqualified - not having any real experience of half of the job
At Brentford Id say he was A COACH and no more - and thats by and large why Brentford work as well as they do - they can succeed inexperienced coach with inexperienced coach because the job is probably half the remit it is anywhere else.
NONE of this is to try and hate on Frank - its just looking at how things are/have happened
I dont hate Frank, there are times where hes angered me, absolutely. And his press conferences frustrated the hell out of me. But I dont hate him.
I think he was promoted to a job well above his level and he was left floundering. Any fault here lays with Levy/Vinai and co for thinking he was the guy for the job. And moreso Vinai for hanging him out to dry.
I do find myself questioning if he even is a good coach though - and much will be proven/disproven in his next job. Im interested to see how it goes, genuinely, though my feeling now is that itll be the way of Smith, Warburton and co.
The main reason I say this?
Well the first thing is the fact Andrews is doing a better job than Frank ever did, without Mbuemo, Wissa (35 goals?) and Norgard - arguably Brentfords 3 best players. I think, at this point, it looks a lot like evidence to all Ive waffled above...
Secondly - his performance at Spurs. The recurring argument I have been making for the last 3 months is that despite all the challenges with injuries etc - he should be doing better with the resources at hand.
I made this post a little while ago, somewhat excacerbated, but I think its the point Im trying to make
Manager - Thomas Frank
I've been thinking this for a while. How can we have so many injuries, all the time. It's easy for a player to get paid, not play, and then not feel part of the failure. Players leave us and their injury records clear up. Players join us and all of a sudden, are injury-prone. Poor squad...thefightingcock.co.uk
A better coach has more in their locker than pump it upfield and spam crosses, let teams play through you at will...
He might be a nice guy
I do normally really support the underdog
I do genuinely like seeing people like Frank given a chance
I do genuinely like that it was us who gave him this chance
I wanted him to be the next Poch, come in, step up, succeed...
Its not that Im just a hater, Frank is a very "me" appointment.
Is just at this point - I think HE is the fault in this appointment more than anything. I, at this point, I think he's a bad coach.
I look forward to his next appointment with genuine curiosity. And good luck to him
postbox it actually is bizarre the club did analysis and Lange appointed his mate who was miles out of his depth. They must have known he was out of his depth which makes them dodgy or they didn’t know which makes them incompetent but either way I don’t see how Lange’s position is tenable. Frank didn’t hire himself.
I watched a fan video on Brentford and it sounds like the head coach is just the slightly most Important coach at the club, so it’s managed by multiple people. Therefore they promote internally and rely on multiple heads. It’s no wonder the head coach can’t step up, he was barely a head coach at Brentford and now he’s a manager at Tottenham. It’s like going from head of department at a small bank to CEO of HSBC.
postbox it actually is bizarre the club did analysis and Lange appointed his mate who was miles out of his depth. They must have known he was out of his depth which makes them dodgy or they didn’t know which makes them incompetent but either way I don’t see how Lange’s position is tenable. Frank didn’t hire himself.
Very similar all round
I still maintain that if we had lost games against the bigger teams but flattened the lesser sides, then we would be sitting in the top half, and debating in a different sphere.
And the board.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
Think it speaks to the lack of proper "football" people involved in the process. Vinai the LinkedIn exec, Lange a glorified scout and Levy.postbox it actually is bizarre the club did analysis and Lange appointed his mate who was miles out of his depth. They must have known he was out of his depth which makes them dodgy or they didn’t know which makes them incompetent but either way I don’t see how Lange’s position is tenable. Frank didn’t hire himself.
Probably?
I mean, if we were playing just the same, but getting results - I think there would still be some heated debate around him
Think it speaks to the lack of proper "football" people involved in the process. Vinai the LinkedIn exec, Lange a glorified scout and Levy.
You'd hope that someone who really knew their stuff would have seen through Frank at the interview stage. Pretty sure he's had multiple interviews over the years (including Liverpool) and has never got a bigger job until Spurs.
While I don't usually trust Paratici on managers he's the only one that seemingly was against Frank from the beginning according to the Athletic. Maybe he sensed it?
Debate for sure, but he wouldn't have gone anywhere.
If it took what it did before the bullet was fired, can you imagine any situation which would otherwise have forced the issue? I can't.
Thankfully, for all concerned,now moot.
Sometimes in life you can put on a really expensive suit and still fail to look the part.
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.
