Thomas Frank remains bullish that he will turn things around at Tottenham Hotspur and get the club where they want to get to.
The Tottenham head coach has come out on the frontfoot over the last few weeks as speculation has intensified about his fit for the role.
Frank has admitted that Spurs’ form at home this season is ‘unacceptable’, but he is certainly not throwing the towel in.
There was plenty of excitement at N17 when he took over from Brenford in the summer, and the 52-year-old remains convinced that he is the right fit for the Lilywhites.
Thomas Frank is honoured to get Tottenham opportunity
The Dane has now admitted that he is proud to get the opportunity to manage one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League, but insists that he earned the right to do so.
Even though the Spurs are languishing in the bottom half of the table, he remains optimistic about the club’s trajectory and backs himself to turn things around.
Frank told Sky Sports: “I’m super happy to have the opportunity to get this challenge, this opportunity here at Tottenham. I think I earned it. I think, in a way, I deserve the opportunity, the challenge, which I’m very happy about.
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“Of course, sometimes when you’re in the tough moments, you’re thinking, ‘Oh’, but I was pretty sure what I walked into, that it will not be straightforward – I was very aware of that.
“I’m an optimistic person, so I always believe in the good and that we can create something very magical here. I’m 100 per cent convinced that that will happen and we will do that. I also think I’m quite good at analysing situations and finding out where are we, what do we need to improve, what direction do we need to go.
“And with that said, I can also see this is, as I said a few times now, it’s not a quick fix, unfortunately. This is a longer journey. That doesn’t mean that in the longer journey that we don’t need to win football matches, we have to, and hopefully a lot of them, and perform well and all that. But to get to where we want to get, it just takes time to build that.”
Frank suggests Spurs may not be a Champions League club right now
The Lilywhites qualified for the Champions League through the back door by winning the Europa League club last season, but Frank suggests that they might not be a top four or five club at the moment.
He also referenced the fact that he has had to do without some of Tottenham’s best attacking players and suggested that the team is showing sings of improvement.
The former Brentford boss added: “Honestly, I think we are in a transition phase, because yes, we are a Champions League club, but are we a Champions League club? We only qualified because we won the Europa League. We didn’t qualify because we were one of the four or five best clubs in the Premier League last season. We finished 17th. And now we need to compete in the Champions League while we’re competing in the Premier League, which is the most difficult thing.
“The last time we did that was three years ago, when we finished eighth. That’s reality. Something happened with the squad over those three years. Then the year after, with no Europe, some of the key players offensively were (James) Maddison, (Dejan) Kulusevski, Sonny (Heung-Min Son), who are not here anymore [Son has left club, while Maddison and Kulusevski are long-term injury absentees]. So that’s just some of the reality.
“And then we need to build that competitive team that can compete every third or fourth day. And that’s just an ongoing working process, no matter if we like it or not, to speak about it. That’s what we’re working very hard on every single day. I think we are building some of the bits behind the scenes that are good. So, for example, I think there is a very good win in how the coaching staff, performance staff, medical staff, are working together.”