THOMAS FRANK is a good man – he is intelligent and sparky, loves football and wants to do something special at Tottenham.
He is a manager who was desperate for the chance to prove himself on a bigger stage than Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium.
But with every passing week, it is harder and harder to shake the feeling that Spurs might just be too big a club for the Dane.
That he cannot quite grasp the scale, the scrutiny, the depth of longing inside the fanbase, the sense of frustration that permeates every pore.
The reality, obvious as it might seem, is that Spurs aren’t Brentford, where building a genuine rapport with the fans meant so much, where expectations and ambitions were always limited.
However, in N17, legitimately or otherwise, that is simply not the case.
If you have the best stadium in the Premier League, an income stream that guarantees more than half a billion pounds through the books every season, and a rich seam of history that fans always want to mine, finishing in the top half is not even close to enough.
Let alone the dreaded prospect of another campaign in which, while Spurs do not actually flirt with the danger of the drop, it is close enough to haunt minds.
Under Frank, so far, every forward step has been followed by one in the opposite direction.
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Spurs have had one genuinely decent month this season, a seven-match unbeaten run from the start of September.
But as we approach the Christmas carnage, they have still not won more than two matches in a row at any point in the campaign.
Just two home wins in the Prem is pretty much relegation form, previously balanced by away performances.
Yet what the fans who travelled to the City Ground on Sunday witnessed was the sort of gutless, guileless and hopeless display that drains faith, no matter how much Frank might urge patience and time.
Two wins in a week against old club Brentford and a decidedly limited Slavia Prague had raised the bar, not lowered it.
Frank had put a few coppers back into repaying the debt many supporters feel he owes them for the miserable displays they have already witnessed against Bournemouth, Wolves, Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham.
But Spurs didn’t merely knock that bar off at Forest. They didn’t even attempt to jump.
Frank’s overdraft facility with the Spurs fans feels exhausted already.
There is little or no good will, either, not since he publicly dug them out over their treatment of Guglielmo Vicario after the Fulham debacle.
If the invertebrates XI turn up again when Liverpool – who smashed Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs 6-3 in the corresponding game last term – come calling on Saturday, the mood inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be beyond mutinous.
Frank was supposed to be the antidote to the one- dimensional Aussie, whose sacking was deserved — even if he delivered on that seemingly bonkers trophy vow.
Yet it feels that administering the dose has only uncovered the spread of the illness.
Even a few weeks ago, Frank could respond to criticisms of his side’s lack of attacking endeavour by pointing to the huge improvement in Spurs’ defending.
But even accounting for last week’s two clean sheets, they have still conceded 16 in the last seven games — and far too many of them have been self-inflicted wounds.
Vicario’s error count shows no sign of stabilising, Djed Spence became the latest to make a public show of disrespect, Pedro Porro is increasingly being questioned, as are Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur.
To be fair, Frank has been without his two best attacking players all season – with no indication when Dejan Kulusevski or James Maddison might ever be spotted on the pitch again – while striker Dominic Solanke has also been sidelined for virtually the entire campaign.
Of course, Frank could still turn it around. Tottenham’s two greatest managers did, as, to a degree, did the best of the Premier League era.
Bill Nicholson started with a 10-4 victory over Everton but then won just two of his next 12 games.
Keith Burkinshaw took Spurs DOWN in his first season.
Mauricio Pochettino feared he might be sacked when his side were 11th at the end of October 2014.
Beat Liverpool on Saturday and it could be Frank’s turning point.
Lose again, without putting up a fight, and it will feel terminal.
