Thomas Frank has spoken for the first time since being appointed Tottenham head coach and he notably failed to mention Son Heung-min or Cristian Romero, both linked to an exit, when discussing the senior players he can help to get the best out of.
Half of Tottenham's leadership group under former head coach Ange Postecoglou may not be at the club for the 2025/26 season with Romero strongly linked to Atletico Madrid, while Son could move to Turkiye or Saudi Arabia with just one year remaining on his contract.
Alongside that, who would be taking charge of the group was unclear until Friday, June 6 when it was announced Postecoglou had been relieved of his duties. Just a few days on from that, Frank was confirmed as his replacement with weeks of meetings having taken place prior to that.
Despite confirmation of his arrival coming some time ago, Frank's first interview in charge of the Lilywhites has just finally dropped. The Dane spoke on a number of topics, including the squad that will be at his disposal and what he expects of them.
He said: "I'm a big believer in this one liner that; 'If you don't take risks, you also take risks'. So I think it's important that we take risks. A risk for example is if we play man-to-man in some situations. Risk is you need to play forward. If you don't risk the ball, you can't create anything.
"I'm a big big believer that we need to be brave. The players need to be brave when we play and trust themselves. I will do my very best to instil that trust and for the players to be brave.
"For me, if they lose the ball by trying, that is never a problem for me. I can react - that is always natural. They need to do that, but if they don't work hard, I struggle more with that.
"If they do everything they can and lose the ball, no problem but working hard is my non-negotiable. But we'll need to take risks otherwise it's impossible to achieve something big.
"I think it is a very talented squad. Very excited about starting to work with them. Of course, when you follow the Premier League, you see the other teams and so I've seen some fantastic performances from them over these last years and I'm very excited about that.
"I think that there's big potential but, of course, I'm looking from the outside, so I'm looking forward to getting to know them, be around them, feel them, to understand them and work with them on the training pitch and that's really where you get the big understanding.
"You understand the relationships between players and how you can get the best out of them."
Though questions asked to him were cut out, it appeared as though he was then asked more about the players as he went on to specifically name three experienced Tottenham stars he wants to help.
"When I say talent, I don't just mean the young players, but also the more experienced in how we can get the best out of them.
"I'm a big fan of Dominic Solanke in terms of his abilities and I'm sure we'll help him score a lot of goals. How can we play with [Rodrigo] Bentancur and [James] Maddison but, of course, the younger ones as well.
"I think it's all players that we need to develop and make perform on the highest level. But of course [Lucas] Bergvall, Archie Gray, [Wilson] Odobert, [Destiny] Udogie, all of them, I think have a high ceiling. There's others I haven't mentioned, it's the whole squad and I'm looking forward to it."
Not mentioning Son or Romero, considering their respective experience, is certainly interesting - but it is worth taking with a pinch of salt. Firstly, both players are arguably at a world-class level already.
Moreover, in a setting like that, it is easy to forget names and it is also worth noting the trio actually mentioned have shown glimpses of their quality, but have struggled to deliver consistently which may have been what Frank was hinting at.
However, given the exit links surrounding the duo and their prominence as faces of the club, it could be a subtle hint that Frank has been told they may be moving elsewhere.