Thomas Frank has made quite the name for himself since taking on the Brentford hotseat back in October 2018. Securing promotion to the Premier League just under three years later following a Championship play-off final victory over Swansea City, the Dane has established the Bees as a Premier League club.
Brentford have never looked in any danger of losing their top-flight status in their four seasons in the Premier League, with Frank guiding them to tenth place in the 2024/25 campaign. In a year where there was so much talk about how they would cope following Ivan Toney's exit, there was barely a mention of the England striker during the season due to their sparkling form and the goals Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa were plundering for fun.
Frank is rated extremely highly in the game and he may now in fact be set to depart Brentford for Tottenham following Ange Postecoglou's exit. The 51-year-old is the firm favourite to take on the hotseat and Daniel Levy and Spurs would no doubt like to make a quick appointment so they can start planning for the 2025/26 season.
Back in September, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola stated Frank taking on one of European football's biggest jobs "is just a question of time" and it "is going to happen". So what exactly have his other managerial counterparts said about him during his four years in the Premier League? football.london takes a look below.
Jurgen Klopp
“[They make] very smart transfer business and Thomas is adapting with style," said the German. “He plays against possession teams one way and plays against other teams when all of a sudden they are a possession team themselves. It’s really interesting. He’s doing a brilliant job. He seems to be very happy there.
“He’s a cool guy. I respect him a lot. They are doing really well and [he’s] really smart.”
He added: "Absolutely great. I watched the press conference of Thomas Frank and it was one of the most entertaining things I've watched in the last few years.
"It was half an hour talking about all the different players. It was really good. We have to start with that. The football they play is incredible. The organisation they have as well is incredible. Thomas is obviously doing a brilliant job.
"Brentford are doing a brilliant job. How they recruit, how different they are, how much they show that even with less money, it's really possible to create something really special."
Roy Hodgson
"As far as their [Brentford's owners'] trump card was to find Thomas Frank and to get behind him, they have showed their faith in him and believed in what he does," said the former Crystal Palace boss.
"And to give him the chance to put this team together and give him the type of players he's asked for, to be able to play the type of football they want to play.
"They've reaped a very big reward for it, because not only did they get back into the Premier League, they've got into the top 10 of the Premier League already."
Mikel Arteta
“A lot. More than respect, probably it’s admiration," said Arteta when asked about how much he respects the work Frank has done across the capital. "He's done it with a football club where everybody shares the vision, they have a very clear identity.
“It's a club, a team that we can learn a lot from because the way they did it is very, very clever, in my opinion, and then the way the model has sustained and evolved as well is really well timed. Look at the results that they had away from home in the last six matches as well, we know what it's going to require from us to beat them.
“They have many [threats]. They are really aggressive in the high press. If they turn the ball over in transition, they are really good, really well organised. When they go really deep, they have runners from deep as well to help you in that situation. Any restart of play can become a set-piece and they play from that and create a lot of chaos, so you have to be very well prepared.”
Unai Emery
"Of course, very difficult. It’s a very tough match for different reasons," explained Emery on coming up against Frank's Brentford. "Of course, because they are performing very well, because they are competing fantastic always with Thomas [Frank] achieving success the years he is a manager at Brentford.
"Every year, something different, even tactically, improving, getting better. I respect them a lot. I respect the manager, I respect the club, I respect the players.
"They have very good players with very good numbers. The strikers, the wingers, the midfielders, they have very good numbers, scoring goals, assists, the players they have.
"And of course tomorrow, we will play performing very good in case we want to win, and we want to compete getting points there."
Enzo Maresca
"I don’t know [Thomas Frank] personally but I've known about him and his team for many years," revealed Maresca. "He is doing a fantastic job, the way they achieve points, the way they play, the style they have, it is top, fantastic.
"The good thing about Brentford is they can play in many different styles, they don’t have one way to play. They can play with a back four, a back five, or a back four making a back five with one of the wingers. So it’s quite complicated and we will have to try to do our best [to win]."
Arne Slot
“His opinion means definitely something to me because he's shown at Brentford how well he's done so many years for this club and without spending a crazy amount of money, just every time he's able to perform with his teams very good in the Premier League and make it so hard for every top five, top six team to play against him, so his opinion definitely means something to me," said the Dutchman after Frank had called Liverpool the best team in the Premier League and the world.
Graham Potter
"I rate Thomas very highly," said Potter during his time as Chelsea boss. "I’ve followed his career since I came back to the UK and I knew him when I was in Sweden as well, so I know him well. I like him as a person, I think we have similar thoughts around the game and life in general.
"I think a coach is judged on how much he gets out of the players, how much he organises the team, how the results are in comparison to the expectation of those results and he does a fantastic job.
"I think Brentford are really good at what they do. Thomas has done a fantastic job there, they use the quality of their players well. They have limited resources if you compare everybody in the Premier League, but they’ve made the most out of what they have and that’s a credit to Thomas and his staff and all the players there at Brentford."