Thomas Frank’s last days at Tottenham after finally losing faith of owners and players

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The end came for Thomas Frank just when he maintained it wouldn’t as Tottenham decided to bring a close to his seven-month tenure at the north London club.

It was CEO Vinai Venkatesham, along with sporting director Johan Lange, who made the recommendation to the club’s owners, the Lewis family, late on Tuesday night, soon after watching the latest Spurs disappointment unfold alongside non-executive chairman Peter Charrington. Venkatesham had tried to give the 52-year-old as much time as possible but what he produced was ultimately not enough.

Ultimately Frank lost the confidence of the dressing room as well as the fans. He put his faith in a small core leadership group of players – some of those outside that main group would go days without getting barely a word from him on an individual basis and few knew where they stood with him.

Once the leaders began to waver over him, the Dane’s tenure began sliding towards its end as the atmosphere became difficult. Brought in as a safe pair of hands, he eventually proved to be nothing of the sort.

Frank had remained certain the end would not come. Never has one man been so sure of his fate in the face of such overwhelming opposition, but the threat of relegation was too much in the end for the club.

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Watching Frank show such defiance despite the odds after the final whistle was like seeing Jon Snow drawing his sword alone in front of the galloping Bolton cavalry in a Games of Thrones.

Only thundering towards Frank in the swirling rain were the Spurs fans, dreadful results and the inevitable and there were no Knights of the Vale to ride over the hill during the transfer window to save him or after this latest defeat.

Frank had united the Tottenham fanbase but not in the way anybody inside the club had hoped or planned.

At the final whistle on Tuesday night, those remaining Spurs supporters in the south stand, who hadn’t already left on the drizzly journey home, sang ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ towards the drenched Frank before belting out another rendition of ‘ Mauricio Pochettino , he’s magic you know’.

For years, Tottenham had twisted rather than stuck with a manager but there was nothing about the Frank era to suggest he should finally be the one to break the cycle of doom at the club since Pochettino was sacked.

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Tottenham have scored 14 fewer goals in the Premier League than they had at this stage last season and they have fewer points and they have won just two of their past 17 matches in the Premier League.

Absolutely Tottenham have a huge amount of injuries, 11 in total including a new worrying-looking knee problem for Wilson Odobert on Tuesday night.

There was also captain Cristian Romero sat on the sidelines in the drizzle, serving the first of his four game ban when Spurs need him the most.

It’s worth pointing out that when Spurs went through this exact same injury crisis last season you could see that vital parts of the team were missing. Ben Davies and Archie Gray were playing as the central defenders, Mathys Tel had to come in and play as the long centre forward and playmakers were few and far between.

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Frank started the match against Eddie Howe ’s side with £176million of talent in his front four. Yet that quartet looked like they had never played a game together. They lie 16th in the Premier League table and were a last-gasp Benjamin Sesko goal for Manchester United at West Ham from being three points above the drop zone rather than five.

All the reasons given for sticking with Frank beforehand were the same ones dispensed with for Ange Postecoglou. Spurs must show patience, look at the injuries, the team will come good as people come back.

Yet there was proof of the football Tottenham could play under Postecoglou. There was no such evidence under Frank, no set style or football to get the fans out of their seats. Spurs went backwards and they had shown no signs of moving forward again.

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