Tottenham boss Thomas Frank admits that rather than simply stroking players' egos to get them to join, he takes a "pretty direct and honest" approach and it seemed to have worked with new signing Xavi Simons.
While some managers might deliver a stream of compliments, especially to get an important player to sign for their club, the Dane does not sugar-coat what he thinks about a prospective signing and instead gives them a very precise and honest picture of how he sees them, what they can improve on and what they can become within his team.
Whatever Frank said certainly worked for 22-year-old Simons, who put pen to paper on a five-year contract with Spurs, with an option for another two years, in a 60m euros (£52million) transfer from RB Leipzig on Friday.
"I think the most important thing, for me, is the coach. I spoke to him and he showed me a presentation that really impacted me, and that was the final decision for me, like ok, it’s the right coach, the right people, and I really believe that we will achieve really good things here," the Dutchman said after joining Tottenham.
Ahead of the confirmation of that deal, Frank had been asked what he said to prospective signings in order to get them through the door.
"When I speak to them I’m pretty direct and honest in how I see the player," he admitted. "Of course I want to sell the Tottenham project, but I’m always direct in terms of how I see their role and what we hopefully can make them to become. Also that it will be a fantastic journey, but also there can be ups and downs in that journey and there’s bits they need to work on.
"We go into that, then I sign off - I would like the player, but the player also needs to sign off to the project and the role.”
The game's best players come with egos, however large or small, and Frank said those egos are part of their ascent to the top and can be helpful on the pitch.
"100%. They need to. We all have the ego, we can’t live without the ego. None of us would have been in this room, being in the position you guys are in, I am, without the ego pushing us a bit," he said. "I think that’s hugely important, but I think it’s important it is not controlling you in many ways.
"I always use that attitude as confident but humble. You need to be confident about your own abilities but humble about the team, humble about your role, humble that every single day you need to put the hard work in. But when you step on the pitch, when I step in here, you need to look confident. But when I am not humble [enough] to do all the hard work, forget it."
So has the 51-year-old ever met anyone who is missing that humble side to such a degree that he's had to figure out the best way to work with them, if at all.
"I’ve met a few over the years. I think it is important to try and understand the player. I think it is so easy to say ‘Oh he doesn’t have enough’ or ‘He has too much’. It’s the easiest way. It’s my job together with the other coaches to maximise their potential. To maximise their potential I need to get to know them and try to get into them," said the Spurs boss.
Key for Frank and most Premier League clubs' recruitment departments is getting all the background possible on players from those who know them and have worked with them before making their move in the market.
“We take massive references. Massive. We’re big on it. On any player done in the past and we’ll do it the same," he explained. “Of course there are some players who are like ten out of ten, perfect. Others are not ten out of ten but they can’t be too low, of course. But then you think with our culture, it will work anyway.”
Frank spent almost a decade at Brentford, a club that is often praised for its recruitment, and the Dane admitted that it's now a narrower group of players a side like Tottenham has to look at.
"A smaller pool I would say, similar but a couple of levels above in terms of what you are looking for, but when you are looking for better players there are not that many and you all want the best and that perfect number 10 there are very few of them out there," he said.
"So when you do that there are always some doubts in some things but it has been good learning. It's the same processes but I needed to get to know the people who work here and what the processes are so there has been more work this summer than the other years at Brentford, except the first couple of years of course."
So does competing in the market at a club like Spurs mean fending off more rivals?
"It was the same at Brentford, just at a different level. Other clubs wanted the players. It's just a few more of you guys asking questions," said the head coach. "My preferred thing is just to coach the players, develop them, train on the pitch, play the matches but it is part of it so I know I need to do it. Also I want good players in."
Tottenham's work is not done yet in the transfer market as they seek to add another attacking player and a central defender following the arrival of Simons. Frank wants to build a squad strong enough to avoid a repeat of last season's injury crisis.
"The perfect picture, unfortunately it’s not often perfect, is that you have 20 plus three players. Two in each position. All of them robust. Of course you get injuries and then you probably don’t need 20 top players because they also need the balance of getting enough minutes to feed their ego, where they are in the stage of their career. So that’s the perfect scenario but it’s not often you get that," he explained.
"[Injuries are] 100 per cent in the planning. We had too many injuries last year. You can’t get around that. Hopefully we solve the problem with the process we put in place. That can help, but we need to be aware there is a long season, hopefully with 60-plus games so we need to be good enough at building the players, rotating at the right time, which is an art and very difficult, and good enough to have the right amount of players. You can’t have too many because that’s also not good."
