Thomas Frank has admitted that the challenges at a club like Tottenham Hotspur have proven to be very different to the ones he experienced at Brentford.
Frank spent nine years with the Bees, being their head coach for seven of them, which were among the most successful periods in the West London club’s history.
However, less than seven months into his spell at Tottenham Hotspur, the Dane has already had to deal with a level of scrutiny that he would have never experienced at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Several pundits have raised serious question marks over Frank’s fit for Spurs, and some have already written him off.
Thomas Frank not surprised by the level of scrutiny at Tottenham
Every single one of Frank’s decisions and all of his words are being scanned closely by the media.
While the 52-year-old admitted that what he is experiencing at Spurs is a different world to what he did at Brentford, he insisted that it was something he expected when he took the job.
When asked if he has felt an extra weight of pressure since joining Tottenham, the Dane told Football.London: “Definitely, definitely I’ve felt that. It hasn’t surprised me because I knew that was the difference when I walked into it. But like anything else, you don’t know it before you’re standing in it. Like really know it. So now I know it so ‘ok, it’s like this, hmm’. Then we deal with it.
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“I think the biggest difference obviously now is the amount of games, I think that’s the biggest thing. The short turnaround. Of course, I experienced it during Covid, we had 21 games in a row, that was Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Wednesday and so on. We had two spells of 2-2-2, with a lot of travelling, that’s heavy.
“The ability also to think and nail the message, nail the team and all that bit, how you create a team that should be more and more in sync when maybe it’s not that easy because you need to rotate a bit and do those things. That’s the challenge. That’s the biggest difference.”
Frank wants to build a legacy at Spurs
Frank lost eight of his first 10 matches in charge of Brentford, but managed to turn that around and leave a rich legacy at the club.
He admitted that he wants to do the same at Tottenham, insisting that all of his decisions are being taken with the long-term in mind.
When asked if he could see himself spending nine years in North London, Frank responded: “Everything is possible. Ask me now and nine years is a long time. I’ve said it from the beginning, every action, everything I do is with two pathways. One, we need to win tomorrow and the day after and day after but everything is with a long-term vision.
“If you don’t build anything with a long-term vision, then I don’t believe you are a top club. It shouldn’t be ‘oh we survived one more game’, then there are pragmatic choices along the way, injuries, form. Bit by bit, we will try to get closer to being a well-oiled engine that’s impossible to stop.”