It was the icing on an excrement-filled cake for Thomas Frank after overseeing one of Tottenham‘s worst performances in living memory.
After Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Chelsea – just as he does after every home game – Frank encouraged his players to do a lap of appreciation around the stadium.
As his players were booed off the pitch, Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence were caught on camera snubbing their manager and going straight down the tunnel.
The moment was clipped for social media and devoured by fans looking for a symbol of a brutally disappointing performance and an increasingly underwhelming manager.
“All the players are of course frustrated,” Frank said of the incident. “They would like to do well, they would like to win, they would like to perform well, so I understand that.
“I think it is difficult to be consistent in good times and in bad times. That is why I went around to the fans as I did. It is more fun when we win, I can tell you that.”
When pushed on the reactions of Van de Ven and Spence and if their response was acceptable, he added: “I think that is one of the small issues. We have Micky and Djed who are doing everything they can.
“They perform very well so far this season and everyone is frustrated. We do things in a different way, so I don’t think it is a big problem.”
Speaking on Match of the Day later that evening, Alan Shearer said the players’ reaction has been blown out of proportion.
“I totally understand why the players want to get in as soon as possible,” he said.
“They have been an embarrassment, they were booed off the pitch. They want to get in the dressing room and say sorry later on.
“As much as Thomas likes to go around and thank the fans, I get the players point of view that they have been absolutely awful and they want to get off the pitch as quickly as possible.”
This incident will soon be forgotten, overtaken by other events in football’s relentless news cycle. Spence and Van de Ven might be disciplined and left out of Tuesday’s match with Copenhagen.
But the more pertinent question is whether Frank is truly the right fit for Tottenham? Saturday’s performance was the most high-profile dreadful display, but far from the first under the Dane.
Results have been satisfactory and it can be argued that Frank has raised Tottenham’s floor, getting points while playing poorly.
The counter-argument is that Frank is simultaneously lowering Tottenham’s ceiling, narrowing their horizons and squandering the optimism of the post-Levy era.
Spurs fans are used to their team chucking in dreadful performances. Frank’s current crime is making them both awful and boring, the worst of both worlds.
In mitigation, the Spurs squad isn’t much to shout about. Rodrigo Bentancur was lucky to avoid being sent off and is still dining off his 2018 World Cup reputation.
The defenders are incoherent and the striking options are unspectacular.
Mohammed Kudus has been praised to high heavens for his impact since arriving from West Ham, but remains the same hot and cold player as ever, incapable of passing the ball without beating three defenders first.
The handshake snub will dominate post-match discourse, but better managers than Frank have been submerged at Tottenham.
He needs to offer more to disprove the theory that he’s the 2020s version of Alan Curbishley; perfect for a small Premier League upstart without the vision to succeed on a grander stage.
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