Tottenham Hotspur have wasted little time in their quest to hire a new manager. On Friday the club announced that they would be parting ways with Ange Postecoglou, just a few weeks after the Australian head coach had won the Europa League - the North London club’s first major trophy in 16 years. Such a drastic move suggested that Tottenham’s decision makers had someone else in mind and it now seems as though they have had their heart set on another manager for quite some time.
According to the BBC and multiple outlets in England, Tottenham have now opened discussions with Brentford to sign their head coach Thomas Frank. The 51-year-old tactician has emerged as the leading contender to replace Postecoglou at Tottenham next season, but could cost his new club no less than €12 million in compensation to release him from his contract that runs until 2027. So why were Tottenham so keen to part ways with Postecoglou in an attempt to hire Frank as their new manager? Let’s take a look.
One of the league’s most successful head coaches
Perhaps the most important aspect of Frank’s record that Tottenham fans will want to know all about is whether or not he can win games in the Premier League. And while the Brentford boss can’t lay claim to being the most successful manager in the Premier League in absolute terms, there’s no denying that he’s punched above his weight since guiding the club to the English top-flight in 2021. As we can see in the table above, only four head coaches have picked up more points than Frank in the last four seasons and while his average of 1.32 isn’t exactly ground-breaking, it’s worth noting that almost all the other nine head coaches in the table alongside him have been in charge of much richer clubs with stronger squads.
Getting more out of less at Brentford
Indeed, Frank’s strongest selling point as Brentford manager has undoubtedly been his ability to do more with less. A perfect example of that is the manner in which the club have routinely had one of the lowest cost-per-point figures in the Premier League. This season’s figure (i.e the cost of the entire squad in transfer fees divided by the points won) stands at just €4.97m, which was the 17th lowest in the entire league. As we can see in the graph above, Brentford have operated well below the Premier League average and over the course of the last four seasons have never gone higher than 13th among all clubs in the division for the highest cost-per-point average.
Out-performing richer clubs and stronger squads
Another way of looking at Brentford’s remarkable success under Frank is by comparing their comparative riches to the rest of the league. The Danish manager made the move to England in 2018 and since then Brentford’s net spend in the transfer market stands at €112m. That may seem relatively high, but compared to every other club in English football it actually ranks them 19th. And, as we can see in the table above, it hints at a club that have spent less than the likes of Ipswich Town, Sheffield United and Southampton, but been far more successful on the pitch. And that is undoubtedly due to Frank and his ability to get the best out of his players.
A good developer of talent
One way to judge how much players have improved over a given period of time is by looking at their market values and when it comes to increasing player market values few clubs in England are as good at it as Frank’s Brentford. When we consider the market value of every player in Brentford’s squad when they joined the club and their market value now, that combined increase among the entire squad stands at an impressive €136m or a sizable 32.8% increase. That, unsurprisingly, is even more impressive among the wider context of the Premier League, with only three clubs being able to lay claim to higher percentage increases. Which certainly points to a manager that knows how to develop players and improve them dramatically within his system and tactics.
Proven track record with old and young players