A Tottenham insider has stated it’s “madness” two players have been snubbed by Thomas Frank, after he made an important squad decision recently.
Frank has turned Spurs’ fortunes around immediately. Last season, former boss Ange Postecoglou led them to a 17th-placed Premier League finish and was axed.
After seven games, Frank has his side third, with four wins under their belt and 13 goals scored – only Arsenal and Manchester City have scored more.
His Tottenham squad has seen existing players and new signings gel together well.
It is important for the players already in the squad to have bought into what he’s doing, and that clearly is the case, though that’s where Frank has also been questioned.
Indeed, his leadership group was announced of late, with five players on it: Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario, Ben Davies and James Maddison.
The two centre-backs and goalkeeper being included makes sense, while Davies has been at the club for 11 years, and Maddison was named vice captain last season, and has worn the armband previously.
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Right-back Pedro Porro has worn the armband this season, though, and his absence from the list has been noted by Spurs insider John Wenham, alongside that of another experienced Tottenham man.
Wenham told Tottenham News: “I was slightly surprised that Porro was omitted from the leadership team.
“He had captained Tottenham, I think it was against Doncaster, and then the announcement was literally a week later, when he wasn’t in a group of five.
“Joao Palhinha naturally is a leader, and he’s only on loan, so it’d be a bit of a disappointment, maybe to the other players that are permanently here, if he came in and was instantly part of that. But I think he knows that he’s a leader already.
“The other one is probably quite disappointed, is Rodrigo Bentancur. Looking at his age and where he is in his career, but he can’t have, otherwise we’d just say we’ve got a leadership team and it consists of nine players or something. It’s madness.”
Indeed, Porro captained Spurs in the 3-0 League Cup victory over League One Doncaster Rovers, playing the full 90 minutes.
While it’s not the most stern of tests, his side won the game easily and kept a clean sheet, so he can’t have done a bad job.
However, perhaps a longer leadership group would have been too much, and some had to miss out.