Tottenham have had a frustrating week with plenty of speculation surrounding the club and suggestions of unrest and discontent behind the scenes.
Thomas Frank’s side lost 1-0 to Chelsea last weekend, leading to growing frustrations both amongst the players and fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Footage of Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven snubbing Frank after the full-time whistle quickly emerged, while Tottenham fans were raging at the boss.
Since then, however, they cruised to a 4-0 win against Copenhagen in the Champions League and remain unbeaten in Europe so far this season.
Suggestions of unrest in the dressing room have been played down, but concerns about the players’ response on the pitch are refusing to go away.
Thomas Frank squashed dressing room concerns at Tottenham
Former Spurs scout Mick Brown told Football Insider on 3 November that Tottenham must squash any concerns amongst the squad and aim to move forward.
As I revealed on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Frank was quick to resolve any issues behind the scenes, while he explained the players involved have apologised privately and have put the incident behind them.
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However, with Frank having been heavily criticised in the last week, he is hoping to further develop his tactics and plans for the future to avoid similar unrest.
Speaking on the Inside Track podcast, I explained: “Yeah, I think it was just a bit of frustration from both players losing a London derby to Chelsea.
“It was the manager in which they lost the game, they didn’t really lay a glove on Chelsea.
“Thomas Frank came out quickly to sort of play down any talk of unrest or anything like that amongst the squad. He said both players came and apologised to him the day after.
“It’s obviously had no effect on Van de Ven, he scored that wonder-goal in midweek.
“It was a disappointing result against Chelsea, there’s no getting away from that, but obviously still early days in the tenure of Thomas Frank at Tottenham.
“It will take time for him to get his ideas across.
“To be fair to Spurs, they’re sixth in the table and still unbeaten in the Champions League.
“It’s not been the worst start to a season and as I said I think there’s still a lot of time for Frank to improve things and I’m sure he’ll be looking to improve the goal scoring output in the team as well.”
Goalscoring frustrations have been at the forefront of fans’ frustrations, with the lack of a regular goalscoring proving an issue in difficult games.
Tottenham striker plan revealed after Frank claim
One of the supporters’ concerns in the wake of the Chelsea defeat is the lack of threat going forward, with no regular goalscorer available to Frank as things stand.
Richarlison and Mathys Tel have shared the responsibility of being Spurs’ number nine so far this season after Dominic Solanke underwent surgery on an ankle injury.
However, Football Insider revealed on 22 October that Tottenham will struggle to sign a striker in January and may be forced to stick with their current options.
Given the money required to land a new striker mid-way through the season, and the lack of available options, it may prove a difficult task.
The likes of Samu Aghehowa, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Harry Kane have all been linked with moves to North London as they assess a number of top-level options.