This has been a summer like no other for Thomas Frank as his family road trip across Europe and a huge party were interrupted by a certain club from north London looking to hire him as their new head coach.
The 51-year-old Dane has enjoyed a settled existence in the past eight-and-a-half years, knowing only life at Brentford and enjoying his social life with his family and friends. Enter Tottenham Hotspur this summer to lob a cockerel-sized grenade into those best laid-plans and change everything for Frank and his family.
Contact came in the days after the final games of the Premier League season, when Brentford drew 1-1 at Wolves and a parade-weary Tottenham lost 4-1 at home against Brighton.
Spurs were deciding whether to push through with plans to sack Ange Postecoglou despite the Europa League triumph because of that 17th-place finish in the league. Frank was the man who was top of their shortlist of candidates to replace the Australian if they were to make the change.
"So between May 27th and June 12th, without going into details, that was contact from Spurs, but when that started from that moment, I am in work mode, instead of downtime mode," admitted Frank. "I did the last game of the season and had two or three days in London.
"Then I went to Denmark for five days on my own, to see a few friends and family, and then I flew to Spain with my mum and sister. We have a house in Spain. Then my wife flew from London and then we had a week down there, before going back to London and then we drove to Copenhagen, because we had to bring the dog home for three weeks in Denmark."
Now that all sounds straight forward enough but it's when you fill in the gaps in between that you get a sense of not only the man Frank is but just how different his life will become as his Tottenham tenure pushes him into the limelight and in front of the cameras.
That time in Spain before it all went truly made was a special kind of family time for the Franks.
"I tried to escape, of course. I lost my dad a year ago, so I brought my mum and sister to Spain. They were there for the first four or five days. Then they went home and Nanna and I were on our own. She took me to Marbella to some interior design shops and I had to go through a few kitchen shops as well… so it was relaxing, but a little bit of work I would say!" the Dane said with a chuckle.
His days were spent trying to relax in the little pockets of time around everything that was going on in the background.
"I love to go for a morning run and love to go for a swim. I love the mornings. So we sit in the rooftop terrace with a coffee and talk about life and enjoying it. Then, when I have my time, I read, a lot of fiction," he explained. "This summer I read Jan Guillou, the Swedish author. He's had a new series of how they described the century from 1900 to 2000 following a family. I’m on book four now. So I take my head a little bit down. I've read a lot of leadership groups and all that, but then my brain stopped working! So I need to try to stop."
Now let's go inside that car journey, with Frank's poor wife Nanna's road trip dominated by talk of football and a certain club in white in north London.
"‘We left at 6.30am from where we live and then drove down to Folkestone and took the Euro train under, and then we had about nine-and-a-half hours to Puttgarden in Germany, and we were meant to take the ferry from there," recounted Frank while sat on the rooftop of a bar in South Korea. "But that’s it - I’m head down, boopmh, go!
"I'm only stopping for a quick toilet, water, espresso, Red Bull, and then go! I'm driving and then on the phone basically. We did check the GPS because there were queues and all that. So we skipped the ferry and went through Jutland to arrive in Copenhagen at 11pm in the evening."
Frank was fully in Tottenham mode during that long car journey,
"I was on the phone a lot, put it that way!" said the Dane. "I was not that fun to drive with. I had to use the Airpods, because Nanna said, 'I don't want to hear anything, I want to do my own stuff!'.
"So it was mainly phone calls and we had a little bit of podcast time. We listen to a Danish podcast speaking about tricky situations in life. Four or five famous people meet and they talk about the people calling in… “OK, my wife wants to get divorced, what should I do?”."
"And then when we got there, we had three weeks in Denmark where after the announcement on the 12th, I had a couple of days, I think two days in London the week after and then one day in London the week after that. Then, when it was all signed, from the 12th to July 5th, I think I twice had one-and-a-half hours to myself in the summer house! I sat on my own, read half an hour, napped, read for half an hour, that is it!
"The rest was work, planning. Of course we saw friends and family in the evening, so I didn't work from six to six! But on the phone, laptop, online meetings… but it's good. I think it's positive because that's an opportunity to plan. I imagine coming in the middle of the season, it must be a nightmare. So now we had to get on top of everything."
The Franks are a social family, with Thomas, Nanna and their two daughters, Freja and Alba as well as a son Bertram.
"We love to go out with friends and all our children. My three children are 18, 21 and 23. So we have a good thing of going to a nice restaurant and, they get it from their mom, they're very good at talking!" said the Spurs boss. "I'm actually an OK talker, but I'm definitely maximum number four or maybe five in the family.
"‘They really talk! We'll go into a restaurant, let's say at 6pm, and basically they always close at around 1am and they have to tell us “OK, now you need to leave”, because we just talk."
What did Nanna make of the high profile move to Tottenham?
"I think if if she could, if she could choose, she’d probably just say 'stay at Brentford or a little bit more low key job!'. She's not into football and everything, but of course she is also proud and happy for me and she knows it's something I want, so she supports me," said Frank. "You know, I could never, ever, ever, ever have come so far or be in this job without her, impossible. So she's my biggest support."
You might have wondered why after Tottenham announced that Frank would become their new head coach there wasn't a big fanfare around it immediately with photos and quotes from the new man. All of that came much later. That's because it was announced when he had a huge special pre-planned event back in his homeland and was in the midst of getting that ready in a hotel in Vejle.
"It was announced on Thursday 12th and from the 13th to 15th, we had a party for the closest of our friends. So there were 90 people, 90 over a weekend in a nice hotel in Denmark. It was just basically celebrating life. Not 50, or anything. We just basically partied from Friday to Sunday, full on," said Frank with a glint in his eye at the memories.
"We had talked about doing that for seven years. My wife and I, and we have never really done it. Then we planned to do it a year ago. So this year, 'OK, no Euros', because we have a few football people as well. 'OK, no problem, let’s do it', and then this [insert swear word] show started!
"I just signed literally the day before, on the day we came to the hotel to make sure everything was in place. The next day I went for a run and a morning swim. Then did the last bits of talking and getting [the Spurs move] sorted. I put the phone down, quick shower, and at 3pm people came and then we basically just partied over the weekend.
"It was friends and family, sports school friends - yeah, yeah, I went to a sports school - university, old football friends. Family, our children's friends."
Frank enjoys a chance to let his hair down and those days with friends, family, song, buffet and barbecue food were the perfect way to relax ahead of the challenge that lay ahead.
"I'm very good at partying! That's the one thing my three children got from me! The good looks, the children and everything else, they got from their mom!" he said. "We had a top party. There was just a fantastic vibe around it. Of course I'm still young, but when you are 50, you normally don't go to a big party like that. Everyone was staying overnight, everyone was all in.
"So the first night was supposed to be a little bit quiet. But you know, a little bit of champagne and a few beers first, the dinner, just a couple of hours. Then, it just went from here, whoa! It got a bit lively. Singing along like a band - 10 minutes went into like four hours! We went to bed at around 2.30am.
"Then there was a morning dip at 8:30 in the morning. There was spa, small activities, volleyball, competitive football, of course! Spike ball, lunch. Then we had two gospel choirs and a famous Danish lady talking about life, in a very funny way. Then we dressed up for the dinner… and we partied until 5am!
"Our children were there, so it was our age and our three children with some of the friends, so those young people also generate that energy. It ended with all of the go-to guys in the spa with a bottle of champagne at five o'clock in the morning! Yes, that night we went to the next level!"
Once the partying was done, it was time to switch that focus to a new challenge at Tottenham and taking over from Postecoglou, a popular figure with the squad he was about to take over.
"I think there were a lot of good things from Ange. There's a team that are very brave. They have the ability to play with high intensity. The training intensity is very high, and that's a good foundation to go into," he said.
"I think it's fair to say that set-pieces is an area that I'm a big believer in and I think it's a hugely important part of it - that was not as highlighted before, looking from the outside. Then I think there's something on the defensive side where we need to be more balanced from defensive parts - low, middle, and high. They were very good at high pressing last year. So those were the two big areas."
Frank was also set to be working at a club with a chairman in Daniel Levy that has a reputation for changing managers like the bedsheets, with the average tenure of a Tottenham head coach resting around the 18-month to two year mark and Mauricio Pochettino's five-and-a-half years at the helm from 2014 to 2019 an aberration rather than the norm.
"I of course did what I could to do my due diligence about the club and the people that were involved in it, but I also would say with the small knowledge I have of Daniel - I guess that’s the reason why you ask, because there’s some that don't think he's got the best reputation - but for me, he's been very good.," said Frank.
"He’s had a very good approach with everything, very, very transparent. Sometimes there can be a reputation that's very difficult to get away from. So far, things have been very good."
Has Frank spoken yet to Postecoglou since replacing the Australian at the helm?
"I haven’t. I don't think I will, and there's nothing to do with respect. I don't know him, so it will feel a little bit odd," he admitted. "If I meet him, I'll go across to speak to him. He always came across as very open-minded, like a very good person."
The new Tottenham head coach has certainly noticed the difference between life at Brentford and his new job across the capital.
"When we arrived to Hong Kong, the fans outside the hotel, that's probably [the thing to notice] the biggest in terms of the attention," he said. "And then you can say of course the training ground. At Brentford, we had a very good and functional training ground. Tottenham is a full state-of-the-art complex.
"Then, of course, the third thing is probably the ability to spend more money, but it's equally as difficult! It's just the same. Whether 10 million or 20 or 30 or 40 or whatever, you're still competing and trying to convince the players to come."
Now the challenge that lies ahead for Frank also involves getting the processes as streamlined and effective as he got them at the Bees over the years.
"From the beginning there would be more hours available, just simple processes that were in place in Brentford. Everyone knew what to do, everything, so I had a well-oiled coaching machine," he said. "I have a very good coaching staff now, and I think it will be very good. I think it would be on the top level. I'm very happy and I think there are top coaches, but obviously we don't know each other.
"It's a big advantage that Chris [Haslam], Justin [Cochrane] and I have been running the main bit in Brentford, but hey, we can't run it on our own. We need to get everyone with us, and we need to create a super strong unit. So to get everyone on board with the principles, for example, the coaching meetings in the morning, in the afternoon, now it's an hour and an hour, before [at Brentford] was 10-15 and 10-15. So that's just an example of that.
"Then I need to know all the people at the training ground, get to know the players better, invest even more in watching training games and obviously also we are signing players here where the processes in Brentford, I'm not saying they were better, I think they're very good.
"I think that Johan [Lange] and his team is doing a top job, top, but just for them to understand what I'm looking for, so that needs to be aligned. At Brentford aligned (clicks fingers). I want that. OK, fine, we look at it boom and now I need to use more time with Johan and Rob [Mackenzie] and these guys and then we make presentations. 'No, no, no, I need that instead', so all that is just extra hours every day."
Next week brings a huge first competitive match for Frank with the UEFA Super Cup clash against PSG and the Dane told football.london that he is looking forward to what is to come during his tenure.
"I'm super excited. I'm really ready for the challenge. I loved Brentford. It was a top job in every aspect. It was only an opportunity like this I wanted, because I think this, this can be fantastic," he said before admitting: "It can maybe also be not so good, who knows…
"But I think the opportunity to make a difference here is massive. I’m really looking forward to it. Who knows how it goes. I'll go in, I'll be brave, I'll be myself."
And what would Frank's father Preben, who passed away towards the end of the season in 2024, have made of his son taking on a job at one of the Premier League's historically big sides?
"My dad, he will of course be very proud, no doubt about that. He was not into football in that way. It never came from him, my passion for it, but of course, like an parent, when your children are doing something you support them. He watched all the games. He would be proud."
