Thomas Frank reveals which Tottenham player injured Randal Kolo Muani and has worrying Solanke news
Thomas Frank gave plenty of updates at his press conference on Friday afternoon ahead of Tottenham's Premier League clash against Wolves.
Spurs are bouncing from game to game at the moment and just three days after getting past League One side Doncaster Rovers with 3-0 victory in the Carabao Cup third round, the north London side return to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium pitch as they host Wolves in Saturday's late Premier League fixture.
Frank gave fitness updates on Dominic Solanke, Pape Matar Sarr and Randal Kolo Muani and was also asked about another rejected takeover of Tottenham with ENIC and the Lewis family's insistence that the club is not for sale.
Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Frank. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.
What is the latest team news?
The latest is that everyone who was available for the last Premier League game is available again. Midweek Pape was out as a precaution. He was good, he trained today and that is positive.
Kolo Muani is just a dead leg which is dragging on. It’s a little bit annoying. It will take a few more days so he will not be available. Dom is not available.
Do you have more games and press conferences than training sessions now?
Yeah you can say that. It’s definitely been that way the last four or five games but it’s fine. It is what it is. Get on with it. Prepare. Perform. Win. Prepare. Perform. Win. That’s the plan.
Joao Palhinha, signing him permanently must be an easy decision?
Very happy with Joao. He has done very well for us. Come in, helped the team, performing well, playing centre-back and still doing well. Really pleased with him.
Can we get your thoughts on the Together Against Suicide campaign? Every 90 minutes someone takes their own life.
We definitely need to help each other and look after that. That is a bad stat and there is another stat that one in four are considering suicide which is as bad so we need to help. I’m very happy this campaign is going on and I know it’s very important for Vinai, our CEO.
In general for me as well, I think suicide is the worst you can do but before that there are a lot of steps where you are maybe mentally not in a good place. We all know it is about speaking to people and if you don’t have anyone in your closest network, you reach out to the helpline or to a local community because we need to help, we need to speak and we need to speak openly about it.
How far away is Solanke?
It’s an ankle injury which has just been a little bit tricky. It’s nothing big. We are positive it will be relatively quick.
Is there a selection dilemma when Solanke returns?
Right now it is very simple and very easy. Richy is playing and doing good. As you said, scored three goals and one assist they are good numbers. Happy with Richy. He just needs to keep building and keep adding good performances. Keep arriving in the right areas in the box. So yeah, that is positive.
What is Lucas Bergvall's ceiling?
Good question! Hopefully as high as possible. My finest job together with the coaches is to maximise potential in every player, maximise potential in the team. That's my most important task. And Lucas is a fantastic prime example of that - how can we maximise his potential? Right now he is in a very good flow. Right now you can just see he's full of confidence and that's a fantastic position to be in. So pleased with him. Also I think he's adding more and more to his game, he's arriving more in the box for example, which is important.
How important is it to get a win at the start of another busy run?
Of course it would be super important. We are facing a good Wolves side. I think everyone is aware that they haven't had their best start in terms of points. When you look at their performances, they are much better. They are much tighter games. You can see the games they have lost, except the City game, is very super tight. So I expect a very difficult game. This is a team that the last five times we haven't been able to beat. So I think we are very fully aware that this is another game in the Premier League [where] you can take nothing for granted. You can't just think you can walk over any opponent. So we need to come flying out and be ready for it. We need the fans behind us. They need to back us every single second of the match. But I'm very confident, I'm positive that we'll go out and perform well tomorrow.
How easy is it to guard against the fact that your team could be overconfident against the team at the bottom and have lost every game - stats say this should be the easiest games to predict this weekend?
That's because we always look backwards. We don't look into the next game. Every game has got its own life. Every game has got its own story. You know, you've asked me these questions before in the past. I was thinking is it best to face a team that's been unbeaten in 10 games or a team that haven't won in 10 games? I don't know and I actually don't care. I just know we prepare for Wolves. We look at their strength and the areas where we think we could potentially hurt them. And then I think it's good that our players are in a good place. They are confident but also know that we need to work very hard. It's not going to be easy. And also, they know the stat as well that we haven't beaten them the last five times.
How much are you learning on the job this season with having to play a game, maybe one rest day, one preparation day and then bang, go again?
You can say learning over the time of the season because having two days between games, I've probably done 100 times in my career. Three games, the same, similar. But I haven't done it 300 times. But do you need to have 300 times? 100 is probably enough to have your routines in terms of how you prepare the team.
I think that's the most important thing. We, as a club, have a very good coaching group, very good staff where we have a clear idea and process how we want to do it, but we constantly discuss the small details. For example, we had some that played a lot of minutes Wednesday night. They are on the second day. We still want to get a little bit out of them. Also, some that didn't play, they need to get a little bit more out. So how do we get that physical load bang on? Plus, we want to get all the details in.
So that is the ongoing discussions constantly and there's no one-fit-all kind of matchday minus one. It's a constant, small little bit development. I think it's the discussions that are important. I think we have got a good framework. We want to get in and then constantly developing a bit.
The football community lost Matt Beard last weekend to suicide, I get the impression it's much better now than it was for players who aren't feeling well and need to come out and talk to managers, coaches, whoever. What about managers? Is there enough care taken for managers and do you have someone you can go and talk to?
It's a good question. I think first and foremost it's an opportunity to pay tribute to Matt Beard and his loved ones, wife, kids, family, friends and everyone who worked with him. And I think it's a very relevant question.
I think for everyone involved in the game, players of course are highly pressurised, but everyone feels the pressure in a different way. That can be a physio, that can be a performance member of staff. It can be everyone who's involved, and then coming back to that as a manager, for myself I use good friends, my wife and then others that are in the environment.
So all the head coaches because it's quite a unique job. And I also said many times before I've got a leadership mentor that I also use. So I think that to be able to speak to others is very important, and I'm very aware you never know if that pressure, how you call it, stress hits you one day. I would say I'm quite resilient to it, but you never know, you can't neglect it.
But speaking openly about it, I think it's hugely important. But also understand that this is such a big world but also a very small world. We all know each other.
It's just because there's so much publicity that makes it a little bit tricky sometimes. Because I know it's the most important thing or maybe the most important thing of not important things in life. And I think it's important to put it into perspective.
With Dom, is he still feeling any discomfort in his ankle?
It's not perfect but we are going forward in the right direction.
Spurs have rejected a third takeover approach in the last couple of weeks, is it strange to come to club in a moment of change from a club which was so stable?
Yeah, a few more questions about it! So, short answer is yes but to start with, you can say it was very stable. Daniel had been here for almost 25 years and then the change came. OK, little bit didn’t expect that but since then the new or old owners, whatever you want to call it, the Lewis family has been very transparent, very good in the way they have communicated and it’s very clear the club is not for sale. Vinai on top of everything is very clear and for me personally, I feel in a very stable environment going into work every day and also learn over a lot of years that the only thing that helps me and helps the team is I do everything I can to focus on the team and players.
How has Luca Williams-Barnett been after Wednesday, the videos seem to suggest he is still training with the first team, he must be buzzing?
Yeah, of course very happy. In so many ways I think the first step in many things is always a very important step but after that there are a lot of next steps that he needs to take, but of course it is nice to see him get his debut.
Have you had many interactions with the Lewis family yet?
Yeah, I said that one or two times before that we’ve had some interactions and definitely spoke to them. Yeah, it’s been good.
How did Kolo Muani suffer the dead leg?
In training. I think it was Pape that ran into him. I need to blame Pape, but yeah very unfortunate it’s just a contact injury. It is one of those where sometimes they can take a week or other times they can take a couple of weeks because it's started to bleed again unfortunately.
How is Radu Dragusin progressing?
He is progressing well. He has been on the grass for three weeks or something like that, so he progressing well as he should do. We all know coming back from an ACL is a longer one, so it's on track. It will be some weeks before he's involved in the squad.
Another one about the ownership. With the Lewis family, you have spoken to them but have you had a more formal meeting with them to talk about their plans or is one pencilled in for say October international break?
No, we have had more informal chats. Of course it's about football, the club and the team and all that, but the bigger plans is something we're working along with and I think it's important to get to know each other and align everything.
With Dom, he was training earlier this week, is he still training or has he suffered a setback?
No, because when you have that, when there’s a bit of pain, it’s just to see if we can get it right for right now. He wasn’t on the grass today but was on the grass earlier in the week.
With Dom and Kolo Muani, do they need to be built up when they come back after such a long time without playing or training?
Dom has been running a lot and done a lot, so he’s in a fine-ish place. Of course it will still take a few weeks to get up to a good place. And Kolo Muani has been off the grass for a couple of weeks and it will take some weeks after that.
