Here's a look behind the scenes with football.london after Tottenham made the trip to Germany for their Champions League match at Eintracht Frankfurt
There must be something about the air in Frankfurt that fries and frazzles Tottenham head coaches or perhaps it's just the toll of managing the north London club.
Back in April last year Ange Postecoglou arrived in the German city with speculation swirling around his future as Spurs spluttered in the Premier League. Tottenham's flight that day from the UK was delayed and they did not arrive until an hour after their media duties were meant to begin.
Amid the delay, despite talk of a potential change in the dugout with Ryan Mason tipped to make it a hat-trick of caretaker stints, an email was sent by Tottenham stating that on the upcoming Saturday morning: "Ange Postecoglou will preview our Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest."
In that press conference in Germany, Postecoglou looked tired and terse as he was asked about his future and he only looked happy when he went out through the doors and stepped on to the pitch for a training session.
Twelve months on and along with a new Spurs manager in the hot seat, little else has changed, other than the January snow now lying around the Deutsche Bank Park amid its somewhat woodland setting.
Once again Spurs were an hour late in landing at the nearby airport and again an email was sent out inviting the media to the manager's next press conference, this time on Friday afternoon ahead of the Premier League match against Manchester City.
Thomas Frank already wears the look of a man who has truly lived the Tottenham experience and it's only five months since the season began. By the time the tired Postecoglou arrived in Frankfurt, he had overseen the team for almost 18 months.
Speculation swirls around Frank as well. Tottenham have not improved under his watch as of yet, having crashed out of the domestic cup competitions early and sitting in roughly the same position in the Premier League that they were a year previously under his predecessor.
Once again though there is Europe as the salvation of the season. Frank was asked about his future in Germany on Tuesday night but mainly the news of Randal Kolo Muani's car crash earlier that day dominated proceedings.
The 27-year-old, who has been linked with a return to Juventus despite Spurs' lack of attackers, was driving from the club's Enfield training ground to Stansted Airport to catch the team flight to Germany when he was involved in an accident that left the front right-hand side of his Ferrari smashed to smithereens, his windscreen cracked and his airbag deployed.
He was incredibly fortunate to escape injury and the Frenchman's compatriot Wilson Odobert was behind him on the motorway and pulled over to check that his team-mate was alright after the accident. Frank explained that the duo were fine and were set to join the squad on a later flight on Tuesday evening.
When the questions kept coming about the crash, for very little was known about it other than two photos on social media and Frank unsure himself if both men were in the same vehicle, the Dane made a little noise as if to say 'another one?'.
When the reporter added "I know you’ve got a lot of things going on at the moment", Frank replied: "Ah, a few things!"
Frank is not as liable to snap as Postecoglou and that's as annoyed as the 52-year-old is likely to get in a press conference - it was even said with a smile - but there was clearly a frustration to his voice.
However, the change in subject probably benefited him. Once it was known that everyone involved in the crash was safe and well, it was a subject of good fortune that took up enough time that there were only one or two questions, indirectly, about Frank's future.
That is a subject which to be perfectly honest has been covered to such a degree and asked about that now the only people who should be answering the questions about it are those above the head coach.
Frank, like Postecoglou, is finding that injuries and squad registration issues hang heavy around anyone's neck trying to succeed at Tottenham.
For this match in Germany, he once again has only 11 senior outfield players to choose from after first choice defenders Pedro Porro and Micky van de Ven added their names to the long injury list.
Frank hopes Van de Ven will be fit to face City at the weekend but the overplayed Porro, a player he rates highly, will miss four weeks with a hamstring injury.
"Time to stop for a few days. I'll be back soon. Good luck tonight, team. Bring back the three points @spursofficial," wrote the right-back on Instagram.
Frank is desperate for reinforcements in the January transfer window but he told football.london that he is not so desperate that he wants the club to just bring in anyone.
"We are in the market. We do everything we can to see if we can improve the squad. We said that the whole time. I think it's, of course, when things are not exactly what we wanted and we have some injuries, you can be pushed and forced to take decisions you don't really want to take if everything was on top," he said.
"So we need to be very, very smart and cool and calm and take good decisions to help us to optimise short-term success, but also secure long-term success."
Frank was also asked about goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who is constantly being linked with a move to West Ham despite likely trading one bench for another and the fact that Spurs would unnecessarily need to use up one of their three changes for the Champions League knockout stages on a replacement goalkeeper.
"In general, happy with Kinsky. He’s a great keeper. I think any player wants to play but we also need good players if something happens with Vic for example," said the Spurs boss.
It was difficult to know what way to take that from Frank, as in parts it sounded like backing for the Czech goalkeeper and in others not so much.
The lack of available senior players this week means a group of academy products have made the trip to Germany and most, if not all, will be on the bench in Frankfurt.
Jun'ai Byfield, James Rowswell, Malachi Hardy, Tye Hall, Rio Kyerematen and Callum Olusesi were all on the flight from Stansted but youngster Luca Williams-Barnett missed out on the trip with a small injury, while winger Tynan Thompson could not be spotted in training on Tuesday despite Spurs lacking in available wide men.
Their academy team-mates will be hoping for some game time if the match goes Tottenham's way. After his impressive debut against Dortmund in the last game, 17-year-old Byfield is likely to get minutes regardless as Spurs have so few centre-backs available and Frank will want to rest Cristian Romero or Kevin Danso at some point in the game. Byfield could even start in a back three with them both if the Dane wanted to roll the dice on the talented young defender.
There was at least some good news in Frankfurt, other than Kolo Muani's lucky escape, and that was Dominic Solanke making it clear that he was no longer feeling any pain in his ankle. There is still a way to go for the forward as his game is based on a strong work ethic up front with his running and pressing of opponents and football.london asked him how close he was to being that player again.
"Hopefully soon. I feel good, I feel fit. All of my injuries have gone away. I was out for quite a long time. So I'm obviously not going to get straight up to fitness and start straight away," he said. "I've been training with the team for a bit now and have a few games under my belt. So I'm feeling good.
"It’s always difficult being injured. It’s hard to watch the team knowing you can’t really help or do anything to change that but I’m fit now and feel good and want to do everything I can to help the team.
"We’re only just past the halfway mark and we’ve still got a lot of games to play and still believe we can go on to have a good season. I’m hoping to play a big role in that and we’re all looking for positives."
Last year, Spurs supporters travelled abroad low on confidence. As football.london arrived in Germany back in April, a border control officer at Frankfurt Airport had declared with a surprised laugh: "All the Tottenham fans think they're going to lose!"
Little has changed in terms of confidence, although on this occasions Frankfurt fans are in a similar frame of mind. They are managerless, struggling for form and have conceded three goals in each of their past five consecutive games.
As they cannot qualify for the knockout stages, there is even talk among the local media that interim boss Dennis Schmitt may rotate his squad in order to have players fresh for this Saturday's Bundesliga match against Leverkusen. He has ruled out Can Uzun, who scored in six of his first seven games of the campaign, after the forward was forced off in the defeat to Hoffenheim on Saturday.
Summer arrival Jonathan Burkardt, who kicked off the season with 11 goals in 15 games, has not yet returned from a calf injury suffered in November.
So Frankfurt have their own problems to deal with and it will be interesting to see how loud the normally noisy Deutsche Bank Park is on Wednesday night with nothing to play for. The expectation is that the Frankfurt fans will sing regardless.
For Tottenham, Frank's men must come and do the job asked of them, as many of them did in April last year.
Back then, ahead of that Europa League quarter-final in a similar article to this, football.london wrote: "Postecoglou is right. Amid all of the pain, frustration and criticism of what has felt like the most wasted of seasons at Tottenham Hotspur, there is still the potential for it all to end with something special that the fans will talk about forever."
That came to pass and the same applies, albeit in an even more unlikely scenario, in 2026. The question is what lessons were learned by Spurs from 2025 and will they be heeded.
