Tottenham boss Thomas Frank under pressure: Have Spurs fans lost faith in their manager?
Thomas Frank's future may lie in the hands of those in power at Tottenham Hotspur, but the court of public opinion has delivered its damning final verdict.
The Dane has been the target for toxicity before as he fails dismally to win over Spurs supporters unconvinced by his pedigree after arriving from Brentford, along with a stodgy style regarded as conservative and dull.
Not like this, though. Not on the levels of fury aimed at Frank at the dramatic conclusion of the 2-1 home defeat by struggling West Ham United.
Frank looked a hapless, beaten figure as he offered polite applause to those who turned on him savagely after Callum Wilson bundled home a stoppage-time winner - the cue for a storm of discontent to be unleashed in his direction.
Spurs fans were chanting "sacked in the morning" at their own manager even during the video assistant referee check for offside that eventually cleared Wilson's winner.
Seconds later, when the final whistle confirmed the latest blow inflicted on Frank, it felt like there was no way back. This was the sound of a fanbase who had given up on their head coach, who no longer wanted him at the club.
Brutal - but this was the inescapable conclusion. Frank was stunned, appearing broken.
The grumblings of discontent started before the game, when about 100 supporters took part in a 'Change For Tottenham' protest, which appeared to have been partly calmed by the £35m signing of Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid and an open letter from chief executive Vinai Venkatashem assuring concerned fans of the club's ambition.
Indeed, Frank had enjoyed a relatively positive week. At least until his team started playing.
Frank had a key role in ensuring Spurs beat Aston Villa to Gallagher, then added respected Dutch coach John Heitinga - part of Arne Slot's backroom team when Liverpool won the Premier League last season - as assistant coach.
But there is a constant undercurrent of discontent at Spurs that shows no signs of going away, the mood not helped by a league home record that now reads played 11, lost six and only won two.
Crysencio Summerville's early goal turned up the pressure. But Spurs hardly helped themselves with a desperate lack of urgency that actually played on supporters' nerves and unhappiness.
Shortly before half-time, Pedro Porro had a throw-in deep in West Ham territory, Amid pleas for speed, the defender took 30 seconds, which seemed like an age, before presenting West Ham with possession.
On the hour, with time of the essence and an equaliser required, Spurs supporters erupted as the ball was played around aimlessly at the back in the manner of a team defending a healthy lead.
Cristian Romero's equaliser offered false hope, only for Wilson to scramble the winner as Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario was yet again found weak and wanting at a corner, his complaints that he had been impeded rightly ignored.
West Ham, in contrast, celebrated wildly after ending a run of 10 winless league games that plunged them and head coach Nuno Espirito Santo into crisis. The old jibe about 'Dr Tottenham' prescribing a cure for every struggling club's ills dusted off once more.
Captain Romero, who went straight down the tunnel at the final whistle, said: "Tomorrow we will train in silence, work hard again. Midweek we have another big match.
"At this moment this is a disaster for us. We played sometimes good, sometimes bad. We must work hard and go again. It's a difficult moment for us. We are not the best on the pitch."
Frank is starting to sound like a broken record, but it is hard to say anything different when outcomes are so often the same.
On the booing, he told BBC's Match Of The Day: "It's not a nice feeling, but I understand frustration. We are losing to a big London rival. There is nothing worse.
"We couldn't win at home, which we work very hard to try to do. Hopefully they [the fans] can see the effort from the boys. They are working very hard. We did everything in the second half."
When quizzed on his future, he replied: "I am feeling the backing from everyone, everyone wants the same thing - long-term success. We are doing a lot of things right behind the scenes, but we are not getting the results which is crucial."
Frank's problem is that after losing games even their sceptical support might expect them to win, such as against West Ham, Spurs now face a potentially pivotal sequence of games.
They face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League before travelling to face Burnley at Turf Moor. The Clarets will no doubt be encouraged by West Ham's win and buoyed by their own creditable point at Liverpool.
Spurs then travel to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League before a home meeting with Manchester City. They then face Manchester United at Old Trafford.
These are followed by home games against Newcastle United then the north London derby against Arsenal on 22 February.
Whether Frank survives to see all of those games must be in serious doubt given the scale of almost unanimous ill-feeling that swept around the stadium when the credits rolled on another loss.
The instinct of the Spurs hierarchy has been to support Frank, but this had all the feelings of the day and defeat when supporters lost all faith in him.
Frank's only hope now is that those above him show more patience.
