Thomas Frank is no longer the head coach of Tottenham Hotspur and there is a road map of the various moments that led to his sacking.
Spurs made the decision to part company with the Dane after the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United on Tuesday evening, which made it just two victories in 17 Premier League matches and left the north London club lying precariously just five points above West Ham and the drop zone.
"The club has taken the decision to make a change in the men’s head coach position and Thomas Frank will leave today," read a statement from Tottenham the following morning. "Thomas was appointed in June 2025, and we have been determined to give him the time and support needed to build for the future together. However, results and performances have led the board to conclude that a change at this point in the season is necessary.
"Throughout his time at the club, Thomas has conducted himself with unwavering commitment, giving everything in his efforts to move the club forward. We would like to thank him for his contribution and wish him every success in the future."
So how did Tottenham get to this point? For an in-depth insight into Frank's dismissal and when, why and how it happened, you can go to our long read on it all or in a simpler form here are 10 moments that contributed to the 52-year-old's downfall.
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His first press conference
It all started a bit shakily for Frank with his first press conference, which was a slightly nervy affair and produced a couple of missteps in the space of one answer that would haunt him somewhat for the rest of his seven months at Tottenham. It immediately showed the increased level of scrutiny the leap from Brentford to N17 would bring.
When asked about the pressure he would face at Spurs, within his response the Dane declared: "One thing is 100% sure, we will lose football matches."
It was such a contrast to previous managers saying they were going to win trophies at the club and that statement would end up being the theme of his time in north London and one that fans constantly referred back to. Frank was just trying to be realistic, but ultimately it was so uninspiring.
In that same answer he began the links to a certain club across the other side of north London.
"I haven't seen a team that is not losing any football matches. There is Arsenal, that we can't mention, in the Premier League. So I made my first rookie mistake there," he said.
We will return to the Arsenal theme in a little while.
Maddison and injury timeframes
Frank was also a victim of circumstance, arriving at a time when Son Heung-min wanted to leave Spurs and in the South Korean's final game so began the Dane's experience of injuries at Tottenham.
James Maddison, only recently back in action from a knee injury, would fall to the floor in the final minutes of the game in Seoul having torn his cruciate ligament. His season was effectively over before it began.
He was not the first to be lost to long-term injuries and in his final match as Spurs boss, Frank lost Wilson Odobert to what is reportedly another ACL injury to make it 11 players out injured and many of them out for months.
The other issue with injuries for Frank was that because players kept having setbacks, specifically Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski, so he first looked wrong with his updates on them at first and then evasive and secretive as he gave up trying to predict when they would return.
The fans grew frustrated at that and took it out on Frank when he in reality he had no control over the situation, but it began to form the rift with them.
Van de Ven and Spence moment and his player relationship
There was a suggestion early on that Frank might struggle to earn respect among a Spurs group that had just won a trophy with the lack of silverware and big club experience on his CV.
Little moments along the way hinted towards that becoming a possibility and none more so that when he asked his players to do a lap of appreciation after the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea in November only for Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence to refuse and walk past him, ignoring his request as he stared after them forlornly.
The duo later came in to his office separately to apologise to him but the course was set.
Ultimately Frank lost the confidence of the dressing room with a communication style that mainly involved a small core leadership group of players, while some of those outside that main group would go days without getting barely a word from him on an individual basis.
That meant that few of those players, some very talented ones among them, did not know where they stood with him. Once the leaders began to waver over Frank, so the Dane's tenure began sliding towards its end.
Who's Eze?
Once again a victim of his own words, Frank was mocked after joking in his pre-north London derby press conference about the player Spurs missed out on to Arsenal in the summer window.
"Who's Eze?" he said with a laugh before adding: "Very good player. He plays for Arsenal. A team we want to beat on Sunday."
Spurs did not beat the Gunners and Eze would score a hat-trick. It was always likely to be in the script after the Lilywhites failed to move quickly for the England international in the summer and allowed their local rivals to steal in and swipe him away.
It was only a moment of attempted humour from Frank but again ended up blowing back in his face.
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Vicario incident and 'true fans'
Frank stuck up for his goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after November's defeat to Fulham at home and put himself in the firing line of the fans in doing so.
Vicario had come out to claim a ball outside of his box and inexplicably chose not to knock it out of play and instead hit a weak pass down the line and the ball eventually fell to Harry Wilson, who curled the ball from the touchline into the empty net. The Spurs goalkeeper was booed with his next two touches and then cheered when he next kicked the ball out of play.
"I didn’t like how the fans reacted to that," said Frank. "They booed at him straight after and also three or four times when he was on the ball. For me that is unacceptable. They can’t be true Tottenham fans. Booing after (the game), fair. No problem. But when we are playing we need to be together. If we turn it around, we need to do it together. That is hugely important for me."
That 'true Tottenham fans' comment rankled with many in the fanbase and it did not save Vicario who continues to be targeted by some in the south stand during home games.
Supporter chants
The Spurs fans began to grow tired of their team's style of play under Frank before 2025 came to a close with the lack of creativity and attacking football.
That began to spill over into chants from the terraces towards the Dane and his team as 2026 began. The away fans were so bored during the 0-0 draw at Frank's old side Brentford that they began to cycle through chant after chant.
They began singing "boring, boring Tottenham" before bursting out into chants for numerous nostalgic figures from the past in Dele Alli, former manager Martin Jol, Ledley King, Mousa Dembele, Aaron Lennon and even former centre-back Eric Dier got a chorus among others.
The message was clear and they again sang "boring, boring Tottenham" even louder as the game reached its final stages.
Then came Frank's difficult moment with them after the final whistle. The Spurs players had gone over to the travelling faithful without getting too close, only for the Dane to then come over and walk past them, followed by a Sky cameraman, applauding the away support.
The reaction was instantaneous as the bulk of those 1,700 away fans booed the Tottenham head coach loudly. After a moment and a stern look, he turned and walked back across the same pitch where he was mostly adored for nine years. That felt like the beginning of the end with the fans when the away faithful turned.
The draw at Burnley brought more chants starting with the popular "sideways and backwards, everywhere we go". Then after Van de Ven blasted Spurs into the lead in the first half the fans belted out "we are staying up, we are staying up".
The chants then came thick and fast after Spurs conceded Lyle Foster's goal with "We want Frank out, we want Frank out" swiftly followed by "You're getting sacked in the morning, sacked in the morning". There was also the colourful "Thomas Frank, your football is..." Well you can guess the next word.
The Arsenal cup
Frank did get a cup while employed by Tottenham but not the one he was after. As if the defeat at Bournemouth was not bad enough, images started to emerge of Frank enjoying a pre-match espresso in a cup bearing an Arsenal logo. It surely had to be AI? Unfortunately it wasn't.
The cup had been left over from Mikel Arteta's team's visit at the weekend and the Dane and his staff had unwittingly picked them up and used them. As they walked out on to the pitch, the pitchside photographers snapped away as normal to leave Spurs fans fuming and Arsenal supporters sniggering.
"Definitely [I had] not noticed it. I think it's fair to say that we're not winning every single football match so it would be absolutely, completely stupid of me to take a cup with Arsenal. Is there anyone thinking I've done that? All the staff has done it," Frank said angrily afterwards.
"They've been in the changing room, the game before us. Its normal to take a cup, give me an espresso, I do that before every game. I think actually it's a little bit sad in football that I need to be asked a question about that.
"I think we're definitely going in the wrong direction if we need to worry about me having a cup with another logo of another club, of course I'll never do that. That's extremely stupid."
If Spurs had won it would have been simply a silly side story, but it caused a storm in a coffee cup as rivals fans chanted that Frank was an Arsenal fan for weeks to come.
A transfer window of little help
Throughout January, Frank spoke about needing help in the transfer window and extra options in attack as players dropped like flies with long term injuries and Brennan Johnson was sold to Crystal Palace.
The Dane even admitted in the final days that a loan deal would be perfectly acceptable just to give him some numbers, but the days passed and nothing materialised. There wasn't a single January deal worth doing for an attacker that apparently would have helped Frank or Tottenham in any way, despite other clubs managing to bring in attacking reinforcements that have already impressed this month, not least Bournemouth with the arrival of exciting Brazilian winger Rayan.
Frank was left defending the lack of activity at Tottenham and speaking about making "smart" and "cool" decisions, but ultimately his thin squad depth played its part in his departure.
Romero indiscipline
Frank was always in a tough spot with Cristian Romero. The Spurs captain is a powerful figure and it's suggested inside the club that he will get away with things that others might not. The players love him even if he's not a leader in the traditional sense.
So when the Argentine continued his trend of speaking out about the club hierarchy in social media posts, Frank was hamstrung, if you'll pardon the expression among the injuries. He could not condemn him too strongly but also needed to protect those who employed him.
How did Romero repay him? With an ankle-high challenge on Casemiro that got him banned for four matches and crucially missed the crunch game that would have prolonged Frank's stay in north London if Spurs had won.
Ultimately, having your captain approaching a fifth suspension of the season reflected just as much on Frank as it did Romero.
The final defiance
When Frank was asked on Tuesday night if he had spoken to the Tottenham hierarchy and whether he was worried about his position, he simply told TNT Sports: "I spoke to them [owners] yesterday so no."
Then when asked whether the fans' chants might cause the club to change their mind, the Dane only said: "No."
In his press conference, the Dane was asked if he was sure he would be in charge of Spurs in the north London derby in 11 days' time.
"Yeah, I’m convinced I will be. I understand the question and I understand it’s easy to point to me but I also think it’s never only the head coach or the ownership or the directors or the players or the staff. It’s everyone," he said. "If you do something right, you build something that can last. Of course we are not in a top position now. Everyone knows, directors, ownership, myself, what position we are in, what we need to improve and what we need to do better. That is what we are working very hard on."
Frank was utterly convinced he would remain as Tottenham manager despite being one of the club's worst in its history. He was wrong and it was unfortunately fitting that his opening press conference for Spurs and his last one would end up defining his time at the club along with those eight moments in between.
With the horrendous results, the club were left with no option but to take action before things got worse.