The Tottenham Hotspur boss has made it clear what his intentions are at the north London club and given some more injury news
Thomas Frank has made it clear that he did not join Tottenham Hotspur to finish anywhere other than on top of the Premier League eventually.
The Dane has found life tough at Spurs since leaving Brentford with just two wins in his past 12 Premier League matches and an injury list that has stirred echoes of the problems his predecessor Ange Postecoglou had to tackle last winter. On top of that, the north London club sold last season's top scorer Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace for £35million only to lose the player who had been keeping him out of the line-up, Mohammed Kudus, until April with a quad injury.
Tottenham sit 14th in the table and after last season's 17th-place finish, Frank made it very clear that he has no intention of accepting mediocrity in the Premier League.
"That’s impossible at Tottenham. I didn't just come to this club to finish 14th, 10th, eighth, sixth, fourth, third, second. We want to build something that can be very successful all the time," said the 52-year-old. "I’m very aware where we are at the moment. I think it’s fair to say that not many are.
"I know where we want to go and then we need to be judged at the end of the season."
The Spurs boss explained that he speaks to club owners the Lewis family "on text or we talk sometimes" but there had been no planned meeting with them for a "couple of weeks" with CEO Vinai Venkatesham his main port of call at the club, speaking to the former Arsenal supremo every other day.
Frank is waiting to be able to use key players and long-term absentees Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski. While the England international is finally back in training after struggling with an ankle problem since the summer, the Swede is yet to return after patella surgery in his right knee in May last year.
At first it was assumed that Kulusevski would miss the start of the season and then Frank said he hoped to have him available by the end of last year and now it could be another month until the 25-year-old is ready to try again after feeling discomfort in his knee when he initially returned to training on the grass.
"It was not going forward as quickly as we thought but it's an injury we haven’t seen that much in football history," admitted Frank. "It's a complicated injury, where it’s important to make sure there’s no pain in the knee. That’s why he got an injection and it hopefully will help. So in three to four weeks’ time, he’ll be on the grass pain-free."
Spurs go into their FA Cup clash with high-flying Aston Villa on Saturday without Kudus, Kulusevski, Solanke, Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Bergvall, James Maddison and potentially Destiny Udogie, although the Italian is back in training. Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma have been away at the Africa Cup of Nations, with Senegal and Mali facing each other last night and Bissouma sent off.
With the Lilywhites missing central midfielders galore and football.london having previously reported that Frank wanted another midfielder, the Dane was asked if that was now a priority position.
"We’re looking in every position. We also have a few away at the Africa Cup of Nations," he said. "I think, when you want to improve the squad, of course there are some positions that are maybe more obvious than others, but we are out there. If we can improve the squad, we’ll improve the squad."
Frank will also be without captain Cristian Romero, who has received a one-game ban and a £50,000 fine following an FA charge for failing to leave the pitch promptly and behaving in a confrontational manner towards the referee after his red card against Liverpool last month.
Romero accepted the charge and Tottenham will not appeal the decision, meaning the Argentine will serve his third one-game suspension of the season so far. The World Cup winner has also racked up seven yellow cards in the Premier League which means if he gets three more in the next 11 matches he will face a two-game ban to continue his disciplinary issues.
Even with the absences, Frank is looking for an FA Cup run to do something similar for his team as the Europa League triumph did for Postecoglou's side last season.
"I’m very, very aware that a cup run will be fantastic. The FA Cup is the biggest cup and most historic cup tournament, not only in the UK and England, but also in the world," he said. "So we will do everything we can to win that game tomorrow and then progress to the next round and to install belief. That’s the only thing we’re thinking about.
"We'll be going full strength. Yeah, all in, because we want to win it. Both the game and the tournament if possible, but it’s one game at a time. We’re facing a very good Villa team. We know that, but we’ll go all in to try to win that game."