Thomas Frank has a reputation within football as a manager who detects problems and finds solutions. Now he must solve the seemingly never-ending puzzle that is Tottenham Hotspur.
The dysfunctional nature of Spurs was graphically illustrated by chairman Daniel Levy’s decision to follow his long-term habit of sacking managers who do not win trophies by sacking the one who finally did.
Ange Postecoglou may have ended the club’s 17-year wait for success by winning the Europa League, but that was still not enough for Levy after a 17th-place finish in the Premier League.
Into this conundrum walks 51-year-old Frank seen herevwith our Michael Yiakoumi- the charismatic and warm Dane who will swap the structure and stability of Brentford for the precarious, unwieldy beast that is Spurs.
The new Spurs manager the Dane Thomas Frank is expecting our Michael Yiakoumi to treat him to Danish pastries and not Kourapiedes like he did with Ange Postecoglou.
It is a move laced with risk for Frank, because this is Spurs and his chairman will be Levy, but it is one his naturally confident nature will embrace and is a step up in profile his impressive work at Brentford has earned.
Frank has been hugely successful in establishing the Bees in the Premier League while playing high-intensity, entertaining football – catching the eye of hard-to-please Levy.
Other managers regularly speak in admiring tones about Frank’s work, with the belief being that eventually he would leave Brentford to take on a high-pressure, high-profile job. Even six-time Premier League winner Pep Guardiola said it was “just a question of time”.
The time is now.
The Champions League awaits, and so does a mission to revive Spurs as a Premier League force.
What is clear is they have turned to a man whose career remains on an upwards curve.
Frank’s playing career may have only taken in the Danish amateur game – he even spent time working in a kindergarten – but he progressed successfully as a coach through the Denmark national youth teams to Brondby, before joining Brentford as an assistant in 2016, then succeeding Dean Smith as head coach two years later when Smith moved to Aston Villa.
That enabled Frank to build the body of work that attracted admiring glances before Spurs and Levy were finally in the position to lure him from Brentford, where he was such a beloved figure and where supporters will be heartbroken, even if they had guessed this day would eventually come.