Football London

Thomas Frank has finally given his first interview as Tottenham Hotspur head coach.

The Dane was appointed as Ange Postecoglou's successor on Thursday, June 12. But Spurs supporters had to wait for six days to hear from their new boss.

Frank had undoubtedly been on holiday, given the timing of the appointment less than a month after the 2024/25 Premier League season had ended. But the 51-year-old is now in the building at Hotspur Way and raring to get stuck in to the new challenge having arrived from London rivals Brentford.

Tottenham posted the full interview with the new boss on their official website on Wednesday evening, with Frank opening up on a number of things including his playing style, his excitement at the opportunity and working with chairman Daniel Levy, new CEO Vinai Venkatesham and technical director Johan Lange.

You can read every word Frank said in that interview here.

When asked about working with the Spurs hierarchy, Frank made one reference to transfers, without being pushed. The summer transfer window is in full flow, but Spurs have only completed the signing of Mathys Tel on a permanent deal so far, and that was a reasonably simple deal to get done with the Frenchman spending the 2024/25 season on loan with Spurs having an option to buy him at the end of it.

Frank said: "Hopefully we win a lot. We'll work very hard every single day to make sure we create as many magic moments for the fans, and put them together and hopefully at the end of the season there will be a very good season, but the alignment in terms of structure, processes, transfers, squad, playing style, culture, all that is is key."

And the next deal may see someone already at the club put pen to paper on a new contract.

There have been talks in recent weeks of midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur signing a new deal, with his current contract due to expire in 2026.

When talking about the squad he is inheriting, Frank made reference to a number of players specifically, with Bentancur one he was very quick to mention, suggesting he is a big fan of the Uruguayan.

"How can we get the best out of them," he asked. "Let's say Dominic Solanke, a big fan of him, in terms of his abilities. I'm sure we'll make him score a lot of goals.

"How can we play with Bentancur, you know, [James] Maddison, how can we get that, but of course the younger ones as well. I think it's all players that we need to develop and make perform on the highest level. But of course [Lucas] Bergvall, Archie Gray, [Wilson] Odobert, [Destiny] Udogie, all of them, I think have a high ceiling. There's others I haven't mentioned, it's the whole squad and I'm looking forward to it."

Mentioning Bentancur after Solanke hints that Frank wants to build his midfield around the Uruguayan and that a new contract being agreed is imperative.

Daniel Levy has come out with some grand statements this week and all eyes are on how the Tottenham chairman ensures they come to pass.

In the week that his new head coach Thomas Frank begins work at Hotspur Way after replacing the Europa League-winning Ange Postecoglou, so Levy has been speaking in an interview alongside new Tottenham CEO Vinai Venkatesham and has explained what he expects from the club as it needs to challenge on all fronts.

"We've won a European trophy. It's not enough," said the 63-year-old. "It's what we haven't done that's more important. We need to win the league. We want to win the Premier League. We want to win the Champions League. We want to win."

Our Spurs correspondents Alasdair Gold and Rob Guest have been discussing the chairman's interview in the latest episode of their podcast Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham and whether it's a masterstroke from the man at the top with supposedly very "broad shoulders" in taking all of the pressure off Frank as it is now Levy who must provide a squad capable of doing all of the above, or whether it was something blurted out in a passionate monologue.

In the podcast, the duo also give their take on the first appearance of Venkatesham, as well as going through the newly-released Premier League fixtures and what they mean for Frank's opening months at the helm and later in the campaign once the Champions League fixtures and domestic cups are factored in.

You can listen to the latest episode of the podcast by heading right here or you can watch the show on YouTube by going right here.

West Ham United star Mohammed Kudus is the latest attacker being linked with a summer transfer to Tottenham. Bryan Mbeumo, Antoine Semenyo, Tyler Dibling, Jack Grealish and Arnaud Kalimuendo are other names that could join Thomas Frank in north London.

The permanent return of Mathys Tel was confirmed last week with Spurs able to negotiate his fee down to £30million. Though Tottenham have hit one of their man transfer aims by signing a winger, further attacking decisions are expected.

Mbeumo joining Manchester United from Brentford appeared to be the most likely outcome. at least until Frank was appointed at Spurs. Ruben Amorim's side are still leading the race for the £70million-rated Cameroonian, but there is a chance he changes his mind and wants to reunite with Frank and play Champions League football.

Bournemouth's Semenyo is the main alternative while, as deals for Dibling and Grealish remain unlikely, Kudus has seemingly jumped up the shortlist. According to The Guardian, Daniel Levy is prepared to bite the bullet in attempt to bring him to Spurs.

They have also stated that a £50million bid is being prepared with the aim of testing the waters. The Ghana regular has an £85million release clause in his contract.

As so much goes into transfers, that low-ball offer from Spurs is likely being done to gauge important information and see if the player is open to moving. Of the names mentioned, Kudus is the one garnering the most excitement despite his inconsistent returns during the 2024/25 season.

He managed just the nine goal contributions from 35 appearances in all competitions, but some of his individual displays were mesmerising. In terms of potential, the 24-year-old has bags of it which made it no surprise Arsenal, Chelsea and Brighton all wanted to sign him from Ajax before the Hammers swooped in.

Realistically, West Ham will not accept a bid worth £50million but equally, there is almost no chance Tottenham pay his £85million release clause in full.

If a compromise can be met between those two values, it is absolutely a deal worth pursuing but only if Kudus wants the move. Though he has only been at Spurs' rivals for two seasons, he may not want to seal that switch across London.

He also has history with Tottenham after his side's 4-1 defeat last year when he was sent off after an altercation with Micky van de Ven.

Back looking on to the financial needed, in comparison to the likes of Grealish and Mbeumo, it is unlikely Kudus' wage demands will be a huge problem.

He currently earns in the region of £90,000-per-week and though he would likely expect an increase, it is unlikely to be something that breaks the club's wage structure. If Mbeumo were to join, however, he would likely want to become Spurs' highest-paid player.

Tottenham and Jack Grealish are almost synonymous with transfer windows.

There have been plenty of transfer windows in the past where Grealish has been linked with a move to Spurs, with 2018 when he came close to making the move to north London from Aston Villa.

Tottenham were keen on signing the then 22-year-old, but missed their opportunity when haggling over the transfer fee. Spurs looked set to sign him but when the deal took too long to complete and Villa got new investment, there was no longer an opportunity.

Grealish would make the move to Manchester City three years later for a whopping £100million and he has gone on to win every piece of silverware going with the Citizens.

City boss Pep Guardiola has effectively told Grealish to find a new club, with the 29-year-old not part of the squad for the Club World Cup in the United States of America.

Speaking about his omission, Guardiola said: "He had a conversation with the club and decided the best [thing was to miss the tournament]. Jack is an exceptional player but he didn’t [play a lot this season]. We decided he has to play.

"We decided don’t come here. What happens I don’t know but if he doesn’t [leave] he is a player for Man City and he will be back."

Spurs are the favourites with the bookmakers to sign Grealish this summer as Thomas Frank looks to make his mark on the squad having replaced Ange Postecoglou at the helm.

But Grealish's past admission gives Frank something of a transfer dilemma when it comes to making a decision over signing him.

Speaking way back in 2020, Grealish said: "I love that No 10 role. I'll play anywhere, off the left or right, but that No.10 [is my favourite]."

Tottenham already have a number of options when it comes to the ten role. James Maddison wears the No.10 shirt and primarily played there under Postecoglou, with Dejan Kulusevski also impressive when playing in that role. Do Spurs really need a third option there?

Grealish admitted he could play off the left or right too, but captain Son Heung-min is the preferred choice on the left, although there are question marks over his future in N17, with the South Korean more open than ever before to leaving the club where he has spent the last ten years.

Spurs have already completed the permanent signing of Mathys Tel, following a successful loan period, with the young Frenchman also playing off the left or right, with Brennan Johnson, Richarlison, Wilson Odobert and Mikey Moore all available in those positions too. As is Kulusevski.

Having signed Tel, Grealish might not be the best use of funds, but Frank will want strength in depth to challenge on all fronts next season and Grealish is a talent.

Thomas Frank has spoken for the first time since being appointed Tottenham head coach and he notably failed to mention Son Heung-min or Cristian Romero, both linked to an exit, when discussing the senior players he can help to get the best out of.

Half of Tottenham's leadership group under former head coach Ange Postecoglou may not be at the club for the 2025/26 season with Romero strongly linked to Atletico Madrid, while Son could move to Turkiye or Saudi Arabia with just one year remaining on his contract.

Alongside that, who would be taking charge of the group was unclear until Friday, June 6 when it was announced Postecoglou had been relieved of his duties. Just a few days on from that, Frank was confirmed as his replacement with weeks of meetings having taken place prior to that.

Despite confirmation of his arrival coming some time ago, Frank's first interview in charge of the Lilywhites has just finally dropped. The Dane spoke on a number of topics, including the squad that will be at his disposal and what he expects of them.

He said: "I'm a big believer in this one liner that; 'If you don't take risks, you also take risks'. So I think it's important that we take risks. A risk for example is if we play man-to-man in some situations. Risk is you need to play forward. If you don't risk the ball, you can't create anything.

"I'm a big big believer that we need to be brave. The players need to be brave when we play and trust themselves. I will do my very best to instil that trust and for the players to be brave.

"For me, if they lose the ball by trying, that is never a problem for me. I can react - that is always natural. They need to do that, but if they don't work hard, I struggle more with that.

"If they do everything they can and lose the ball, no problem but working hard is my non-negotiable. But we'll need to take risks otherwise it's impossible to achieve something big.

"I think it is a very talented squad. Very excited about starting to work with them. Of course, when you follow the Premier League, you see the other teams and so I've seen some fantastic performances from them over these last years and I'm very excited about that.

"I think that there's big potential but, of course, I'm looking from the outside, so I'm looking forward to getting to know them, be around them, feel them, to understand them and work with them on the training pitch and that's really where you get the big understanding.

"You understand the relationships between players and how you can get the best out of them."

Though questions asked to him were cut out, it appeared as though he was then asked more about the players as he went on to specifically name three experienced Tottenham stars he wants to help.

"When I say talent, I don't just mean the young players, but also the more experienced in how we can get the best out of them.

"I'm a big fan of Dominic Solanke in terms of his abilities and I'm sure we'll help him score a lot of goals. How can we play with [Rodrigo] Bentancur and [James] Maddison but, of course, the younger ones as well.

"I think it's all players that we need to develop and make perform on the highest level. But of course [Lucas] Bergvall, Archie Gray, [Wilson] Odobert, [Destiny] Udogie, all of them, I think have a high ceiling. There's others I haven't mentioned, it's the whole squad and I'm looking forward to it."

Not mentioning Son or Romero, considering their respective experience, is certainly interesting - but it is worth taking with a pinch of salt. Firstly, both players are arguably at a world-class level already.

Moreover, in a setting like that, it is easy to forget names and it is also worth noting the trio actually mentioned have shown glimpses of their quality, but have struggled to deliver consistently which may have been what Frank was hinting at.

However, given the exit links surrounding the duo and their prominence as faces of the club, it could be a subtle hint that Frank has been told they may be moving elsewhere.

Thomas Frank has taken part in his first interview as the new head coach of Tottenham Hotspur and there was plenty to read into his comments.

The 51-year-old, who signed a three-year deal with Spurs, is a great communicator and that was clear from his interview with the club after arriving at Hotspur Way on Wednesday to start planning for a big season ahead, with Champions League football on the menu as well as the desire from chairman Daniel Levy for the club to compete on all fronts this season.

Frank spoke about his journey to get to Spurs, the work done by his predecessor Ange Postecoglou, his chats with Levy, new CEO Vinai Venkatesham and technical director Johan Lange and also his plans for the squad and some of the senior players, which some supporters might notice came without mention of captain Son Heung-min, who has an uncertain future at Tottenham as he reaches the final 12 months of his contract.

Here's every single word the new Spurs head coach said in his interview:

Joining Spurs

"The feeling of being the new head coach is extraordinary. I'm really looking forward to this massive challenge together with a lot of good people. I only heard good stuff about all the people here, the training ground, the players, good squad, exciting, massive club, I think massive potential, so just super, super excited."

His pathway to this job

"I think as probably every boy or girl. I just love to play football when I was running around in my hometown, probably pretty soon found out that I was never going to be a professional football player. So I started early coaching when I was 20 years old and then I've been coaching for 30+ years, first grassroots level, academy football, went into my first senior head coach job at Brondby which is a massive club in Denmark, went to England on a journey first as assistant manager and then the head coach and had an unbelievable journey in Brentford. A fantastic time with fantastic staff, players and fans."

Working with the Tottenham hierarchy

"They've done a very, very good process. I would say Daniel Levy and Vinai and Johan Lange. I've had very good conversations and meetings with them, where we discussed everything in in depth, details about club structure, processes, and of course I came with my view on things and how I saw it and my ideas and the way I want to do things and how I try to build a team and the club, and of course it's not, it's not me.

"I think it's very important to say, yes, the head coach is an important person, but if I don't have good people around me, it's impossible. You can't do anything alone in my opinion. If you want to do something quick, you can go alone, if you want to do something big or achieve something big, you go together. So it's definitely a thing about doing things together. Me, staff and players.

"I think the alignment is key from top to bottom, and of course it starts from Daniel and Vinai and Johan and me, and the more the four of us can be aligned, just like a unit and like unbreakable unit, the stronger we will be, and there will be ups and downs. I think right now it's a fairy tale. Everyone is happy. The sun is shining. It's fantastic, but we haven't played one game yet.

"Hopefully we win a lot. We'll work very hard every single day to make sure we create as many magic moments for the fans, and put them together and hopefully at the end of the season there will be a very good season, but the alignment in terms of structure, processes, transfers, squad, playing style, culture, all that is is key."

His style of play

"I think in terms of my style of play, I'll explain it a little bit now, but I rather want to, how can you say, show it. You can talk a lot, but I think it's more what we show, what we try to do, but in a few words the intention is to play aggressive front-footed football and I know the ethos and the history of the club is massive on attacking football, and I think there's so much attacking talent in the squad. I'm very excited about that.

"They've clearly shown over the last two seasons that the ability to score goals is fantastic, and I'm very, very in on that. I love a team that is scoring goals, very, very big on principles. What we do on the final third, in terms of creating chances, and putting bowls in the box, playing in behind and stuff like that, I think it's key. So just want to build on that attacking football, we already have here in the club."

Taking risks

"I'm a big believer, I always say this one liner, if you don't take risk, you also take risk. So I think it's important that we take risks. A risk is, for example, if we play a man to man, in some situations, the risk is you need to play forward. If you don't risk the ball, you can't create anything. So I'm a big, big believer of that. We need to be brave. The players need to be brave when we play, and they need to trust themselves. So I will do my very best to install that trust and the players need to be brave. For me, if they lose the ball by trying, it's never a problem for me.

"Of course I can react, you know, it's natural, but they need to do that. But if they don't work hard, I struggle more with that. If they do everything they can and they lose the ball, or they try, no problem. But it's more if they don't work hard, that's my non-negotiable, but we need to take risk, of course, if we don't take risks, it's impossible to achieve something big."

The Spurs squad he's inheriting

"I think it's a very talented squad. I think it's a very good squad. So yeah, very excited about starting working with them and, of course, you know, when you follow the Premier League, you see the other teams, of course I've seen Tottenham, I've seen some fantastic performances from the team over the last years, and I'm very excited about that.

"I think there's big, big potential in it, but of course I'm looking from the outside, so I'm looking forward to get to know them, to be around them, to feel them, to understand them, to work with them on a training pitch, and that's where you really get the big understanding, and understand the relationships between players and how you can get the best out of them.

"Of course, I got an idea already, you know, my head is spinning, how can we play, who can I put them together and all that."

His senior and young Tottenham players

"When I say talented, it's not only the young players, it's also some of the more experienced players. How can we get the best out of them. Let's say Dominic Solanke, a big fan of him, in terms of his abilities. I'm sure we'll make him score a lot of goals.

"How can we play with Bentancur, you know, Maddison, how can we get that, but of course the younger ones as well. I think it's all players that we need to develop and make perform on the highest level. But of course Bergvall, Archie Gray, Odobert, Udogie, all of them, I think have a high ceiling. There's others I haven't mentioned, it's the whole squad and I'm looking forward to it."

Developing players

"It's always about me. You need to make the team win on a Saturday and a Tuesday, and Saturday and then on Wednesday, but it's also about developing the individual player, and that's me and my staff and the player. So how we work together, about that on a day-to-day basis, because if we lift the players' performance or develop them, the team will grow, perform better, hopefully have opportunities to win more matches."

The Tottenham fans

"First and foremost, I think it's a fantastic fanbase. I think the fans are the most important ones. It's the team, staff, me, all of us. How can we make sure we create enough magic moments with the fans, make moments they remember, they can get hopefully excited about.

"It's about that and also that we go on a journey together and on a journey, there'll be ups and downs, and it's how we get through these ups and downs together, but of course the connection from the team to the fans, from me to the fans, is going to be crucial.

"And a very important thing is to make our home, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium like a fortress, and that can only be the fans and us the team together. So that needs to be an ongoing relationship, ongoing situation we need to build, because I want our home to be very, very difficult to come to and that we can only do together."

Ange Postecoglou and that Europa League win

"Huge congratulations to the club, to the team. Huge congratulations to Ange. He will forever be a legend in Tottenham, and congratulations to him for that. I think it's very important to understand that we all stand on the shoulders of others, so I'm going in on the foundation that Ange has built and his coaching staff, and I'm very humble about that and I'll do my very best to continue the great work they put in.

"But the feeling and the excitement and the joy and the happiness you could see in the fans' faces and the pictures you saw was wow. So hopefully we can create more of those moments, that will be the ultimate dream to do that and hey no one can say they're not winners, the team and the players are winners. Now we need to do our best to become serial winners in the future."

Thomas Frank will be looking to tweak his squad ahead of the new season, with Bournemouth's Antoine Semenyo being linked with a move to Tottenham this summer.

After securing the permanent signature of Mathys Tel, it's unlikely Spurs will stop there when it comes to signings, with the Lilywhites set for a busy summer under new boss Frank. The likes of Bryan Mbeumo, Arnaud Kalimuendo and Jack Grealish are just some of the names being linked with Spurs, but Sky Sports have reported that Spurs are interested in Semenyo.

The Bournemouth forward has shown big improvement season after season since joining the Cherries from Bristol City in 2023, with the Ghanaian international scoring 11 times in the Premier League last season. Able to play on the left, the right, and even as a striker, the versatile forward has been linked with Manchester United and Liverpool over the last few months, with the 25-year-old looking set for a move away from the south coast this summer.

So, if Spurs were to bring Semenyo to north London, how could he fare? Let's take a look.

Tottenham's 2025/26 season simulated with Antoine Semenyo

To set up this simulation, we used Football Manager 2024 to move Semenyo to Spurs in the summer transfer window before simulating the 2025/26 season.

Semenyo was trusted to be Frank's left-winger from the very start, and his decision paid off, with the Ghanaian claiming the spot as his own ahead of Tel and Son Heung-min. The 25-year-old was a strong goalscorer for Spurs, but his creativity was also impressive, though he should've ended the season with more assists.

In 47 appearances across all competitions, Semenyo scored 17 goals for Spurs, with only Dominic Solanke (21) scoring more. He also managed seven assists, with four of those coming in the Premier League, but the forward did create 21 big chances, with only two players in the Premier League creating more.

At the end of the 2025/26 season, Football Manager 2024 put together an overall best Spurs XI, based on performances, statistics, and other metrics. This is what it looked like:

Full Spurs best XI: (4-2-3-1): Vicario; Gray, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Sarr, Bergvall; Johnson, Kulusevski, Semenyo; Solanke.

In a 4-2-3-1 set-up, Semenyo made Spurs' best XI, with the Ghanaian starting on the left alongside Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson behind Solanke. Lucas Bergvall and Pape Sarr made up the rest of the midfield, while Archie Gray beat Pedro Porro to the right-back position, with Frank taking a liking to the youngster over the Spaniard.

What was most impressive about Semenyo was his ability to win games for Spurs. The forward scored the winning goal in seven games across the Premier League season for Spurs, with those points proving valuable come the end of the campaign.

A strong start in the Champions League saw Spurs finish seventh in the League Phase to automatically qualify for the Round of 16, but a 5-2 aggregate loss to Barcelona saw them exit the competition in the first knockout round. A 1-0 defeat against Newcastle ended their Carabao Cup run in the quarter-finals, while a dramatic 4-3 loss to Arsenal saw Frank's side eliminated from the FA Cup in the semi-finals at Wembley.

Daniel Levy and his new Tottenham CEO Vinai Venkatesham delivered a very different kind of address to the fanbase and it certainly made its mark in varying ways.

Before getting into the nitty gritty of what the new double act said with grand statements, a healthy dollop of clarity, a fair bit of bromance and only a couple of misjudged moments teetering on the cringeworthy, it immediately has to be said that the mere fact that the Spurs hierarchy are communicating is a huge step in the right direction.

The lack of communication and direct explanation from the powers-that-be at the club each season, other than the biannual words of Levy in his chairman's message and the financial statement, only serves to form caricatures in the eyes of the supporters, particularly when decisions made over the years have flummoxed the fanbase.

So it is hopefully a sign of things to come under Venkatesham, lauded for his open and transparent dealings with the fans down the road at Arsenal, that this attempt was made to explain the recent decisions made at Spurs and also humanise Levy, a chairman who was the focus of the biggest protests of his tenure last season.

It's a shame that the club didn't promote the YouTube-based interview on X (formerly known as Twitter), or put up clips on TikTok, their biggest social media platform, and it only appeared on an Instagram story post, which lasts for 24 hours, and their BlueSky account which currently only has 30,000 followers. It's an interview that should be seen because, regardless of opinions over what was said, it's exactly what the supporters have long been calling for from the club.

So let's dive into the seven-minute interview itself. Immediately there was a difference with the double act nature of it. That's something we haven't seen before.

Levy has always been seen as the all-powerful entity in the Tottenham palace, the Wizard of N17 behind the curtain, but this video felt like it was laying the foundations for a new era, with Venkatesham's greater ease in front of the camera helping drive many moments of the interview.

The new man believes the duo will form "a powerful partnership" and while he made it clear that he will be taking the lead on day-to-day operational matters on and off the pitch, he added that there won't be any decisions made "of any significance" that the two men won't be "completely joined at the hip on".

Venkatesham has an open way of conversing, an unwillingness to put a varnish on things, and that was immediately clear. It will serve him well in the future in connecting with the fans as Tottenham decisions often need a bit of explaining that previously rarely came in any real detail.

"That's not to say we always agree, we often disagree and we often challenge each other," he said of Levy. "But I think that's a good thing and I think by working together we'll get to better answers. I think I've got some experience that is going to be valued and helpful but I don't have all the answers. I need to learn and to understand more about this football club.

"Ultimately, how I see it is that a football club exists to make its supporters proud and the way that you make your supporters proud is by competing to win and ultimately winning trophies, doing that in a way that is consistent with the history, the values and the traditions of a club that has been built up over many, many decades."

There's often been a feeling within Tottenham over more recent decades that what Levy says goes or at least the people around him have mostly simply agreed rather than offered different viewpoints. If true, that's not the best way for a huge organisation to be run for so long with just one dominant voice. Certainly Venkatesham's words suggest that he will often challenge Levy's view on things and it's either going to work well or fail spectacularly.

Tottenham fans will be hoping that it's the former after almost as many technical directors as head coaches over the years and that Venkatesham is the one that sticks as he did at Arsenal. That his role as a CEO comes with the most power anyone has been handed at the club below Levy, he's certainly got the best chance of doing so.

The 44-year-old is a self-confessed workaholic like his new chairman and the mention of that brought a slightly awkward moment when Levy admitted he thought he was going to speak about their shared love of red wine before a little back and forth on the subject.

Of course it was an attempt to be light-hearted but it wasn't exactly a 'man of the people' moment from the 63-year-old and you can imagine someone off camera waving their hands frantically for someone to change the subject, but at least he was attempting to show a different side to him to the caricature portrayed.

Venkatesham spoke a lot about the fans and the amount of research and reading he's doing to ensure he understands what they want and need as fully as possible, with meetings with the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust and Fans' Advisory Board in his diary for the next couple of weeks.

The new CEO will be aware that he's coming in as 'that guy from Arsenal', but one of the key takeaways from the joint interview was not only his transparency in how he operates but also his desire to connect Spurs with their fans again. It's something he did successfully down the road at the club's north London rivals and there was genuine disappointment among their supporters' trust and various fan groups when he left a year ago.

Halfway through the interview and the elephant in the room was finally addressed. The sacking of Ange Postecoglou after the Australian had delivered Spurs their first trophy in 17 years and first European title in 41. Levy's intro into the subject was odd with that in mind.

"I'm very grateful to Ange. I don't regret appointing Ange," said the chairman.

Why would he? We're not talking about his brief Nuno Espirito Santo mistake here. We're talking about a manager who had to pick up the club in the post-Harry Kane era and after improving their league position in his first year, delivered a historic moment in his second season that gave many Spurs fans their greatest night in recent memory and had an estimated 220,000 of them out on the streets of N17 for a parade that will never be forgotten.

It's certainly not something that anyone would regret and it was an oddly negative way to start talking about someone who had snapped in half the stick Levy was always beaten with over the lack of trophies in his tenure.

The chairman then again made it clear that Spurs, and that now means Thomas Frank, need to compete in all competitions. He said that it was a collective decision to sack Postecoglou rather than simply his own, before listing the things that stood out to him about Frank.

Venkatesham then gave an interesting insight into how Frank was appointed, the level of which we rarely are party to publicly from the club. There are high hopes for the clever Dane to move to the next level from the impressive work he did at Brentford.

"We ran a really, really thorough process at speed. We defined 10 characteristics that we think are important to be a successful manager at Tottenham Hotspur," he said. "We analysed in real detail through our technical staff led by Johan [Lange], more than 30 candidates.

"We had a shortlist, we spent a lot of time with the shortlist, and Thomas was absolutely the number one candidate. I could not be more excited to have him join the club. I agree with everything that Daniel said around his characteristics. Personally, one of the things I’m really excited about is he’s an outstanding developer of young players. I really look forward to seeing what he can do with the squad that we have here."

Venkatesham praised the foundations of the club before declaring that he would not have joined Spurs if he did not believe there was a whole other level that could be reached.

Levy explained that there's no point having a wonderful stadium if the team is not going to win on the pitch and reiterated that all of the events held at the ground are to go back into the team. "Everything is about the team, everything," said the chairman.

That might have been the perfect time to stop the interview, after five-and-a-half minutes with plenty of insight, discussion of the outgoing and new head coach, the decisions made and a little bit of humanisation of the chairman.

It didn't though and it's perhaps the final minute or so that could define what comes next for Levy and his legacy.

After a little more talk of wine and a lot of praise from Venkatesham towards his new boss, the Tottenham chairman started to throw out the declarations and they are ones that will now hang around his neck for better or worse.

The first was: "I've got very broad shoulders. Failure is not an option. The desire is to succeed, because it's so difficult I want to succeed even more."

When talking about that night in Bilbao, Levy essentially confirmed what Postecoglou had said that he felt some within the club were nervous and worried ahead of the final rather than having that mindset to go in and win.

On that final whistle in Spain, Levy said: "It was such an amazing experience and you saw the outpouring of emotion with the parade. It was just incredible. We've won a European trophy. It's not enough. It's what we haven't done that's more important. We need to win the league. We want to win the Premier League. We want to win the Champions League. We want to win."

And with that Levy grabbed the pressure off Frank and placed it firmly back on those apparently very broad shoulders. For all eyes are now on how he goes about making his own huge statement a thing of reality rather than wishful thinking.

It's the kind of sweeping statement that a chairman or new owner declares when they first take over at a new club. Levy though has had almost a quarter of a century at the helm to try to make that dream happen, with season after season of not building upon what came before.

He even spoke about a new manager bringing a fresh start during this interview but Spurs have had so many fresh starts that they don't really know what they are any more.

It's all very well saying that "failure is not an option" but if silverware is the measure of success then Levy has only just had his second taste of not failing on the pitch in 24 years.

There's of course more to it than that amid the landscape of the club building its new home and the scale and financial muscle of the teams Tottenham are up against in the Premier League and also this season in the Champions League.

However, these words will now haunt or define Levy.

"It's not enough. It's what we haven't done that's more important. We need to win the league. We want to win the Premier League. We want to win the Champions League. We want to win."

The long-game process of building his sort of Tottenham Hotspur has not worked up until this point. It's come close on a couple of occasions to becoming something more, but that's been the exception rather than the norm over the past quarter of a century.

If Levy wants Spurs to win the Premier League and the Champions League in the seasons to come then the club will have to spend the money required to achieve that and do so in the right ways. Investment is needed because the stadium has not been able to provide enough revenue by itself to bankroll such a statement. A side bursting with young talent is exciting but is not enough on its own.

Tottenham's rivals are moving quickly and they are spending huge amounts on players ready to compete now rather than in the future. Levy made a big decision in sacking the man that finally won him a trophy and he has to ensure his successor can meet the job's criteria by competing on all fronts with a squad fit for exactly that purpose.

Ange Postecoglou was a man who made a big declaration and was true to his word. Now it's Daniel Levy's turn.

Tottenham expect Thomas Frank and his side to compete on multiple fronts this season and the full effect of the fixture calendar with Champions League and domestic cup games added in shows the task ahead.

Spurs faced 60 matches last season under Ange Postecoglou, managing to win the Europa League and reach the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup. However, they finished 17th in the Premier League and did not progress beyond the fourth round in the FA Cup as an injury crisis, poor performances and Postecoglou deciding to prioritise Europe all played a part.

In sacking Postecoglou, Tottenham made it clear that they expect to compete on multiple fronts. Frank will face a similar fixture pile-up to his predecessor, with games every three to four days in most weeks, and the Dane will be hoping for better fortune when it comes to injuries as well as the club helping him to build a squad capable of taking on the expanded Champions League format, which brings eight league phase games, as well as the packed domestic season.

It will be a new experience for Frank as he has never experienced juggling European football during the middle of a campaign, with his only experience of it coming with 10 Europa League qualifying games back around a decade ago at Brondby.

The Tottenham supporters learned the club's Premier League fixtures for the 2025/26 season on Wednesday morning but now football.london has inserted the European and potential domestic cup dates into the calendar and the full scope of the pile-up becomes clear. As always clubs in continental competition enter the Carabao Cup in the third round and the European games could cause Premier League matches to be shifted from their Saturday spots.

What was already a horrendous trio of games against Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in November now becomes even harder when you insert a potential Carabao Cup fourth round match days before the game against Chelsea, then Champions League matchday four after it, before the home game against United, and then the trip to the Emirates Stadium after the international break is swiftly followed by the next European matchday.

The little run of four horrible games from January into February next year against Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle and Arsenal also becomes even harder when you add in Champions League matchday eight just days before the game against City and a potential Carabao Cup semi-final second leg days after.

There could then be an FA Cup fourth round match and a potential Champions League knockout phase play-offs first leg tie to squeeze in between the games against Newcastle and Arsenal with the second leg of the play-offs just days after the home North London Derby.

In an ideal world Spurs will want to finish in the top eight in the expanded Champions League to avoid the play-offs, but that is easier said than done in Europe's elite club competition.

It's easier to see it all laid out so here is Tottenham's fixture schedule in full for the 2025/26 season with the potential cup dates added in, with the Carabao Cup fixtures to be played in the week commencing their date:

Thomas Frank has got a tough start to life as Tottenham Hotspur head coach as the Premier League fixtures have been released for the 2025/26 season.

The Dane has been handed a three-year contract at the club after being brought in from Brentford to replace Ange Postecoglou at the north London club. Now he has discovered how the Premier League schedule will play out, aside from those games that will move thanks to the broadcast companies' decisions as well as Spurs' involvement in the Champions League as well as the Carabao Cup and then FA Cup.

While Frank will begin his competitive fixtures with the UEFA Super Cup against PSG on August 13, his Premier League era kicks off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a home game against Scott Parker's promoted Burnley side on August 16.

However, the matches immediately take a tough turn before leading into a nightmare November. Spurs' second match under their 51-year-old head coach will see them make the trip to a hugely-reinforced Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on August 23. Then comes a tricky little run against Bournemouth at home (August 30) before the first London derby of the season at West Ham on September 13 after the first international break of the campaign.

Then comes a trip to Brighton on September 20 to make it back-to-back away games before a home clash with Wolves (September 27) to end the month. October brings trips to a noisy Elland Road and newly-promoted Leeds before Spurs welcome Aston Villa after the international break and then travel to Everton's new Hill Dickinson Stadium on October 25.

After that comes a rotten November with home games against Chelsea and Manchester United followed up by the first north London derby of the season on November 22 after the international break. The Christmas fixture this season will see Spurs travel to Crystal Palace, currently slated for December 27.

Other notable fixtures to round off 2025 are two matches against Frank's old Brentford side within the same month as Spurs welcome the Bees on December 6 and then travel to the Gtech Community Stadium to round out the year on December 30. That could yet move around the New Year period of course, as with most of the other games in the schedule.

Tottenham begin 2026 with a home game against promoted Sunderland and then another tough run comes at the end of January into February when they will play City away, United at home, Newcastle at home and then face the second north London derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on February 21.

The final four Premier League matches of the campaign in May bring a trip to Aston Villa, a home clash with Leeds followed by a late season trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea before Spurs finish off matters with the visit of Everton on May 24.

Here is Tottenham's fixture schedule in full for the 2025/26 season: