The i Paper

“Oh Tottenham, can’t you go five seconds without humiliating yourself?” To say it has been a season for Tottenham Hotspur would be an understatement and then some.

Like Abe Simpson’s slacks dropping to reveal a fetching pair of pants, Tottenham have, despairingly, become accustomed to having theirs pulled down. John the Pragmatist – more commonly referred to as Thomas Frank – set the lowest of bars from the outset. “One thing is for sure, we will 100 per cent lose football matches,” Frank enthused at his unveiling. Way to hype up the Europa League champions, Thomas. To Meh is To Do.

Unsurprisingly, the Dane didn’t see out the season, this despite the best efforts of the Gruesome Twosome, Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange. Two wins from the 17 league matches, five points above the relegation zone, and early exits in the Carabao and FA Cup; supporters are more shocked than anything that the reign of terror lasted this long.

Ultimately a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle was the straw that broke the camel’s back. An injury-hit Spurs side losing in front of a half-empty stadium on a wet and windy Tuesday night. The football gods had this season’s metaphor spot on.

And so, Spurs have turned their attention to Igor Tudor. The Croatian returns to management following his Juventus exit in October with the sole aim of keeping Spurs in the Premier League. Forget the Champions League, survival is the priority. Tudor is To Do. To Dare is Tudor. Take your pick.

But just who is the 47-year-old, and how can we expect Spurs to look under Tudor?

A master firefighter

Well, first things first, Tudor is one of the game’s best interim coaches. He has signed a five-month deal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a bid to clean up this mess.

Think Troy in Community walking into a burning room. That will be Tudor on day one at Hotspur Way, because, to be frank – pun intended – Spurs are a state.

These situations are where Tudor thrives, however. He walked into Juventus in March 2025 with nine games to play as Thiago Motta failed to tame the Old Lady.

The Italian giants won five, drew three and finished in the Champions League spots. He signed a two-year deal in Turin as a result, though that ended after a matter of months.

Rewind 12 months, and it was similar with Lazio. Again, Tudor won five and drew three of nine games before riding off into the Rome sunset.

The former defender twice kept Udinese up, so he is as well versed in European qualification as he is consolidation. He is a master firefighter, albeit one now armed with a water pistol running head first into a raging inferno.

‘Threegor’

In terms of setup, expect the three-man backline to take up temporary residence in the capital. Frank experimented with the system, and it worked well in Spurs’ 2-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt last month, before reverting to a four-man defence for the second half of the eventual 2-2 draw with Manchester City.

Tudor, though, is wedded to a three-at-the-back system, so much so he should be renamed “Threegor”.

This does suit the players at his disposal. Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro – two attack-minded defenders with ample experience at wing-back – will thrive… when fit, of course.

Pape Matar Sarr, Joao Palhinha and Archie Gary, Spurs’ three available central midfielders at present, provide energy and tenacity in the middle of the park.

That said one of the latter two are likely to deputise in defence, at least until captain Cristian Romero has served out his four-match ban.

Kolo Muani

Further forward, and in all likelihood Xavi Simons and Conor Gallagher will operate in the No 10 roles, and potentially in support of Randal Kolo Muani in a 3-4-2-1 setup. The latter in particular may enjoy a new lease of life with Tudor at the helm.

This season, Kolo Muani has proven anything but too hot to handle. Some wanted him sent back to Paris Saint-Germain in the January transfer window.

Yet the on-loan forward excelled under Tudor during their respective time together at Juventus, scoring five times and providing one assist in 11 competitive appearances.

Aggressive pressing

Off the ball, Tudor sides are aggressive. They press, and they press hard.

“If you don’t run, you don’t play,” Tudor once said during his time at Marseille. Dimitri Payet didn’t run, so Payet didn’t play.

This is not alien to Tottenham. They rank second for ball recoveries (1322) in England’s top tier this term, even if they reportedly endured lax training sessions under Frank.

The issue has not necessarily been winning the ball back, but rather what Spurs do when in possession. They have been too pedestrian this season, evident in that they rank 12th for forward passes (3,632), 13th for big chances created (35), 18th for shots following a counter-attack (13) and dead last for through balls (15) in the Premier League this season.

All four metrics should increase under Tudor, who relies heavily on quick transitions. Expect a more forward-thinking, vertical-passing Spurs team with Tudor at the helm.

On paper, he is arguably the best interim coach the club could have hoped for. No wonder Fabio Paratici wanted to hire the 47-year-old as a Frank replacement.

Injury risk

Conversely, the appointment does not come without risk. Tudor has largely worked in Serie A. The Premier League is a different beast entirely.

Already in the midst of an injury crisis, the running Tudor demands increases the probability of muscle issues. A threadbare squad could drop like flies over the coming weeks.

What is clear is that Spurs have taken a huge gamble even if Tudor’s track record is sound. Keep them in the top flight, though, and it could be his greatest managerial accomplishment yet.

Shortly after the gong sounded at 7pm on deadline day, Tottenham captain Cristian Romero appeared to aim another dig at the club’s board.

Romero praised his teammates for coping with “only 11 players available – unbelievable but true and disgraceful”, weeks after seemingly accusing the hierarchy of “lies” on social media. Despite Spurs sitting 14th in the table it has been a relatively quiet winter window, with Conor Gallagher and Brazilian left-back Souza the two arrivals.

That can be explained by a major shift in thinking behind the scenes over the past 18 months. In fact the ball began rolling with the departure of Harry Kane in the summer of 2023, but has been hastened along by the departures of other leading figures in the dressing room like Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min.

A new strategy

Having prioritised younger, affordable players with potential – Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Wilson Odobert – Spurs moved into a phase of targeting experienced big names who would improve the squad but also have an influence off the pitch.

Players with Champions League football on their CV ticked an immediate box – that has been seen with the addition of Gallagher from Atletico Madrid. Talks were held to sign Andy Robertson but Liverpool ultimately blocked that move, believing they did not have enough cover at left-back.

Spurs’ chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham has promised to overhaul the wage structure that many have pinpointed as the reason Spurs have struggled to compete for the biggest talent. That takes time.

In the here and now the club is competing with the likes of Manchester City for their most ambitious targets, as seen with Spurs missing out on Antoine Semenyo. The widespread interest in RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande has also slapped a huge price tag on the winger.

The striker market

The market for forwards is particularly inflated. By way of example, Crystal Palace signed Jorgen Strand Larsen – who has scored once for Wolves in the league this season – for £48m. Jean-Philippe Mateta had previously been on Tottenham’s radar but that never felt likely in recent weeks following his public spat with Crystal Palace; his move to AC Milan then fell through due to concerns over a knee injury.

Activity was therefore limited to a loan with an option to buy for James Wilson, the 18-year-old Hearts striker, who will join the U21s. George Abbott goes to Mansfield for another loan after his stints at Notts County and Wycombe Wanderers, academy youngster Herbie James joins Cardiff and Alfie Dorrington moves to Salford City on loan.

An injury crisis

As for the senior squad, it has been difficult for Thomas Frank to assess it properly because of a mounting injury crisis. All season he has been without Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison and has not wanted to overload the squad for when they return.

Spurs offloaded Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace because he was not getting enough minutes following Mohammed Kudus’ arrival. There was a stroke of further bad luck when Kudus was then ruled out through injury just days after that deal went through.

The squad arguably looks weaker than it really is right now, with Rodrigo Bentancur, Richarlison, Pedro Porro, Lucas Bergvall, Kevin Danso, Djed Spence, Micky van de Ven also on the sidelines.

The knock-on effect

One implication of that is that those who voiced a desire to go on loan – like Mathys Tel, who is determined to get more minutes, especially after being left out of the Champions League squad – have not been able to do so.

The i Paper understands Randal Kolo Muani was unsettled too but there was no real question of ripping up his loan agreement early. There was some talk of back-up goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky heading to West Ham and Mads Hermansen moving he other way, yet that didn’t materialise either.

PSR

Tottenham are operating in a market complicated by profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). Even though they have no concerns on that front themselves, plenty of clubs are running close to the wire and that has limited the sales happening across the board. Some agents have never seen January so quiet and some clubs did not make any signings at all.

Much of Spurs’ biggest business was done in the summer – Xavi Simons, Kudus, Tel. Raheem Sterling was linked in the final days of the winter window, but it would have represented a divisive gamble after his struggles at Arsenal and Chelsea.

For all the uncertainty around Frank’s future, and the departure of sporting director Fabio Paratici midway through the month, which left Johan Lange spearheading the operation, Tottenham have largely stuck to their strategy where possible. That leaves one eye on the summer.

Tottenham 2-2 Man City (Solanke 53’, 70’ | Cherki 11’, Semenyo 44’)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM – The term “gallows humour” has been described by psychologists as a last indicator of morale amongst oppressed peoples. So who could have blamed Tottenham Hotspur fans for indulging in a little self-deprecation if it might have stopped Arsenal winning the title?

All week it had been suggested that Spurs supporters were willing their own team to lose to Manchester City. Instead, they provided the chorus to a remarkable fightback from two goals down and showed what happens when they are finally given something to get behind.

Before kick-off, stadium announcer Paul Coyte issued a rallying cry against “all those people who think we want to lose”. In the first half, it looked like they had no choice in the matter – this was not so much a moral abstention as a team being totally outplayed as they spiralled deeper into the jaws of a relegation battle.

Even Thomas Frank’s most ardent critics would have been hard-pushed to argue that such domination by Pep Guardiola’s City ought to be a sackable offence. Yet the manner of supine Spurs’ initial self-implosion hinted it might be, Yves Bissouma conceding possession in the build-up to Rayan Cherki’s opener and Guglielmo Vicario once again facing questions over his positioning.

As Radu Dragusin’s botched clearance allowed Antoine Semenyo to score his fourth in five games since joining City, it will have been no consolation that Frank insisted that his own club had “tried” to sign the forward themselves.

So for 45 minutes, there was every reason for the ground to feel submerged in apathy. As the rain poured, it was as if Frank was trying to shout underwater. He said this week that he was operating in real life, “not Football Manager”; at points it had looked like one player had put their controller down.

With Dominic Solanke’s second-half brace, something shifted. In the scheme of Frank’s turbulent reign, these moments might ultimately not mean that much. But in a season like this, they are a rushing lifeblood. Spurs fans merely entertained the prospect of deflating Arsenal’s dreams because they have ceased to harbour any of their own.

It is a gross mischaracterisation nonetheless, the idea that there was not anger, elation and desperation in equal measure on show. The half-time boos are so regular that they have almost stopped having any effect, but what followed should be a lesson for Frank and his cautious pragmatism.

Solanke blew it away with two moments of brilliance, outmuscling Abdukodir Khusanov and Marc Guehi for his first before pulling out an outrageous flick for the second. Frank has to engineer this siege mentality more regularly to save his job, particularly as he makes do without nine senior players. Cristian Romero did not last the 90 minutes.

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Tottenham fans have endured an awful lot, not least another underwhelming transfer window. And still their spitting savagery directed at Xavi Simons’ early misjudgements transformed to ecstasy at his superb late runs. The vast majority remained in the ground to applaud their team off and start talk of a late Solanke charge for England’s World Cup squad.

If you were being ungenerous, you might think this was peak, Arsenal-cup-wielding Frank, bursting to life when the fans least wanted him to. But that would be just another dose of humour in this peculiar, puzzling campaign.

Joy is back in fashion at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – and the roar was so loud it could probably be heard in the other half of north London.

Friday marked 250 days since Raheem Sterling’s last competitive match but that stretch in the wilderness is coming to an end.

Sterling agreed to terminate his Chelsea contract 18 months early and with that termination went a cool £325,000-a-week, which would have banked Sterling another £25m by summer 2027. Instead there is a determination from the 31-year-old to actually play football again.

Arsenal offered the winger his last reprieve, having gone on loan there last season – playing his last match in May 2025 – but there were no takers in the summer as Chelsea looked to offload Sterling and other members of their “Bomb Squad”.

As a free agent he remains an attractive option, so too his willingness to take a pay cut.

Where Sterling could end up

Burnley are said to be keen, where Sterling could link-up with former Manchester City teammate Kyle Walker, while Fulham could offer him the chance to remain in London.

However, intrigue abounds over the reported seven Champions League clubs interested, a list not fully known but one that includes Tottenham Hotspur, who have defied their Premier League form with their performances in Europe.

Sterling’s Big Six bingo card would almost be complete if he joins Spurs, with only Manchester United left.

Spurs supporters are unlikely to warm to the prospect, unless Sterling is there to warm the bench and lend his experience. It hardly screams ambition from the club, either, while if he wants actual warmth he may fancy Italy, where Napoli and Juventus are said to be weighing up a move.

Five other transfers to watch

Jean-Philippe Mateta

The striker’s future has been unclear all January but he looks set to follow Marc Guehi in leaving Crystal Palace.

Jean-Philippe Mateta

Losing Mateta would represent another blow for the FA Cup holders, who are slowly being dismantled with manager Oliver Glasner also off in the summer.

However, selling Mateta now offers Palace their best chance of making a significant fee. His deal expires in summer 2027, and the Eagles hope to get £40m for the France international with AC Milan and Nottingham Forest interested.

Jorgen Strand Larsen

There are complicated moving parts to this window and it appears the fates of Mateta and Strand Larsen are intertwined.

That has put a staggering £50m transfer (that’s £50m per league goal Strand Larsen has scored this season at Wolverhampton Wanderers) on hold for now, with Leeds United also monitoring the striker.

Jesse Lingard

It looks like the 33-year-old is heading back to Europe after he left FC Seoul in December following two seasons at the South Korean side.

Lingard has not played Premier League football for three years, when he was at Nottingham Forest, but the former Manchester United and West Ham United winger has admirers.

He is reportedly considering offers from clubs in both the Premier League and Italy’s Serie A.

Harry Wilson

A fine Premier League season has seen the 28-year-old winger score eight times for Fulham, and now both club and player have a decision to make.

The Welshman’s contract expires in the summer, and amid reported interest from Aston Villa, Everton, Leeds United and Sunderland, Fulham must either reluctantly sell for a fee in the coming days or accept he is leaving for free at the end of the season. That is unless they can tie him down to a new deal.

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Omar Marmoush

The revolving door at Manchester City rarely slows down and with winger Antoine Semenyo coming in, it could be at the expense of Marmoush.

The Egyptian joined City for £59m last January, but just 550 minutes across all competitions this season – including three Premier League starts – has prompted Marmoush to be linked with a move away.

That said, City boss Pep Guardiola has given Marmoush a start in their most recent league and Champions League games. Chucking him in the shop window amid talk of Spurs, Aston Villa and interest from Turkey? Perhaps.

When Thomas Frank was appointed, Tottenham would not have envisaged him fielding the same questions as Ange Postecoglou was a year ago.

Frank’s predecessor dismissed the notion that Spurs could be relegated as “ridiculous hysteria”– but instead of retreating this season, the idea has only gained legs.

Are Spurs too big to go down? Saturday’s draw with Burnley left them eight points above the relegation zone, a gap narrowed by defeat to 18th-placed West Ham the preceding weekend.

Frank’s call for “calm heads” is certainly in his interests. The obvious reaction would be to sack him. Instead the board have held their nerve during a run of one win in eight league games.

Over the next six weeks Crystal Palace, engulfed in a doom loop of their own, are the only bottom-half club they face.

Upcoming fixtures (Premier League)

Is it possible Spurs take zero points from that run? That is possibly a glass-half-empty reading.

They have beaten City in eight of their last 15 meetings, Newcastle have won twice on the road all season and Manchester United have spent another season in crisis despite the recent upturn under Michael Carrick.

Why Spurs are in freefall

A more optimistic reading is that due to the chaotic nature of this season’s table, Spurs are also just nine points off the top four. All the same you will struggle to find many of their supporters, who spent the weekend making eyes at Mauricio Pochettino and singing “Frank out”, interpreting the situation that way.

That is not just pure pessimism. Since mid-November, Tottenham have dropped 11 points from winning positions. Palace, Burnley and Sunderland are the only teams below them in the form table over the last six weeks.

After their 10th game of the season on 1 November, they were in the Champions League places. Since then they have picked up 1.09 points per game; on the same trajectory until the end of the season, they would finish with 44 points.

Over the same period West Ham are picking up 1.2 points per game – continued, that would earn them 38 points. So, not enough to overtake their London rivals, but enough to give them a scare.

Depleted numbers

January has done little to help rectify the slide. Lucas Bergvall, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies, Richarlison, and Joao Palhinha have joined long-term absentees James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski on the sidelines. Spurs have made two signings – midfielder Conor Gallagher and left-back Souza – while a move for Liverpool’s Andy Robertson has collapsed.

The pursuit of two-time Premier League winner Robertson was a bid to import leadership into the dressing room. It was expected across the board that this was always going to be a quiet window for most clubs, not least because so many are hamstrung by profitability and sustainability rules, but in north London it has meant squad numbers are being depleted and not growing.

None of this is good news for Frank, who has a number of unhappy players in his ranks – Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani among them – and with fans in open mutiny over his style of football.

In Postecoglou’s final season, Spurs finished 17th and suffered 22 defeats – the most any side has managed without going down in Premier League history.

There is no such thing as any club being too big to go down, though people said it repeatedly of Aston Villa and Newcastle in their own relegation seasons. Nobody is seriously expecting that fate at Tottenham. And yet the fact they are engaging in “six-pointers” with Burnley and West Ham (and winning neither) suggests it is creeping closer than you might think.

If the Premier League did points for comedic value, slapstick Spurs would have catapulted up the table against Bournemouth. The manager seen sipping his Espresso from a tiny cup with the Arsenal badge on it. The captain, Cristian Romero, accusing the board of “lies” on Instagram while the players bickered with their supporters in the ground.

Ange Postecoglou may have got it wrong when he suggested that at Tottenham Hotspur, whenever there looks to be light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out to be an oncoming train. By that logic, their demise would have been hard to foresee until it was too late.

The reality is they have been careering in plain sight towards scenes like these over years. The symbolic bulldozing of White Hart Lane coincided with the dismantling of almost everything else that made Tottenham one of the most promising and exciting clubs in the country.

The rot set in through complacency and an understandable giddiness at their unexpected success; nobody expected Mauricio Pochettino to guide them into two title races in 2016 and 2017. What mattered was what they did next and they chose to do nothing.

The wage structure

They missed out on the kind of additions that would have won them the title – Sadio Mane a prime example – because they would not pay them what they wanted. Between 2017-2019, there was an 18-month period when they did not sign a single player. They reached the Champions League final that year but in the league, won one away game in the second half of the season.

The refusal to compete with the rest of the Big Six on wages is the single biggest policy that has held them back, given the significant outlay on transfer fees. Unless it changes, it will remain impossible to compete for the top tier of talent.

What type of manager do they want?

Should Thomas Frank depart, they are likewise fishing in a different pool to Manchester United and Chelsea. Frank has had a lot of bad luck, both in terms of injuries and not always picking up the points his side have probably deserved. It is still the case that attracting Oliver Glasner, Andoni Iraola or any other in-demand head coach is going be a challenge.

It ultimately comes down to what Spurs are trying to be. After sacking Antonio Conte, there were pointed remarks about the new manager needing to embody a romantic fantasy of Tottenham DNA. They went for Postecoglou, then veered in the opposite direction stylistically with Frank.

Selling Brennan Johnson, a player out of favour, will make sense if Frank is still the manager in a year’s time. Less so if he is not.

Arsenal-cup-gate was a silly, unintentional mishap. It only carried so much weight because Frank’s relationship with the fans had already been wounded by five defeats in 10 league games and the fact they have twice this season recorded their lowest xG in a game on record. At Brentford, their own supporters spent the game singing about how boring they were.

Affordable tickets

Internally, it is acknowledged how low the mood among fans seems to have become. It manifests in both the atmosphere at home games and plenty of empty seats at Champions League matches – though the latter is partly down to the cost of the tickets.

Tottenham’s are some of the most expensive season-tickets in the country – many seats costing over £1200 – which is not easy to rectify once it is baked into long-term planning. Cheaper European tickets – many are currently £50-60 – would at least be a goodwill gesture that might help to stem the toxicity.

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Focus on the academy

The other obvious PR win is a renewed commitment to bringing through academy talent. Luca Williams-Barnett, Dane Scarlett and Callum Olusesi are the closest to breaking through. There have been a string of young players who have not made the cut – Troy Parrott, Marcus Edwards – but who have gone on to be successful elsewhere.

Brentford 0-0 Tottenham

GTECH COMMUNITY STADIUM – It says much about the mood among Tottenham fans that midway through a miserable dirge against Brentford, they were reduced to chanting about a miscellany of random ex-players. The medley featured everyone from Jermain Defoe to Danny Rose – and tellingly, none of the current squad.

“Boring, boring Tottenham.” “We want our money back.” The damning death knells of an increasingly grey, depressing campaign. Thomas Frank, heckled and jeered at the final whistle. Only when he saluted the Brentford supporters did he receive a warm embrace of applause. At the ground where he once was God, there is sympathy and bewilderment at how quickly it is all unravelling for him.

Zero big chances. Out-fought for possession. One corner. Admirably, and presumably knowing what the reaction might be, Frank still made his way to the away end to acknowledge the travelling crowd. It was then that the air turned sour and the gallows humour dried up.

Frank cannot continue like this if the atmosphere does not detoxify fast. It was fan dissent that ultimately did for Nuno Espirito Santo, his substitutions mercilessly booed. By the end of Antonio Conte’s reign, Spurs fans had taken to singing Mauricio Pochettino’s name in the middle of games.

The current incumbent insisted afterwards that “it’s not that we don’t want to play offensive or attacking football… of course the offensive part needs to be better, there’s no two ways about that”.

If he is to salvage anything from this uninspiring season, he needs to be backed in this month’s transfer window.

There is now another £35m knocking about as Brennan Johnson prepares to join Crystal Palace. It only took two minutes for Spurs fans to start serenading the spectre of their departing Europa League hero. Forever immortalised in the image of those dark glasses masking his post-Bilbao bender, Johnson’s goal in the final against Manchester United has earned him a place in north London folklore.

Eight months on, his alma mater drew another hopeless blank. In a head vs heart sense, the Johnson deal makes a lot of sense – he started less than a third of league games under Frank. It does mean, however, that for the third year in a row, the club has sold its top scorer from the previous season, following in the footsteps of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min.

That alone does not explain the ongoing thirst for creativity. Frank started at Brentford with seven defensively inclined players. There was the return of the much protested against Joao Palhinha-Rodrigo Bentancur combination, their first start together since that appalling north London derby defeat.

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Far too often, Spurs simply do not look like scoring. And in the quiet of another pedestrian outing, it was easy to recall why the sight of Johnson loitering around the far post will be so sorely missed. It was never about the manner of his goals, but their significance.

Aa they search for a replacement who can challenge Mohammed Kudus for his spot, there are fears something of a “Tottenham tax” will come attached to creative players in the market, given the urgent need. RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande is one such target but he is being monitored by a number of clubs and the Bundesliga outfit are holding out for more than £60m. That is a sizable fee for a 19-year-old unproven in the Premier League.

Frank is also reluctant to overload his squad when Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke and James Maddison would all be first choice upon their return from injury. The other obvious source of succour is the academy – here, Luca Williams-Barnett, its brightest current prospect, was not even named on the bench. Two goalkeepers were. Williams-Barnett reacted to that decision with a cryptic Instagram post as he watched along unhappily; at least he will not have been alone in that.

Crystal Palace 0-1 Tottenham (Gray 42’)

You have to hand it to Tottenham Hotspur, for few other teams approach every Premier League match with the reverence it deserves, entertaining each opponent as if humbly prostrating themselves before a prime Barcelona.

Perhaps it was the blaugrana of Crystal Palace shirts that caused the confusion, but winning ugly is still winning. The simplicity of Frank-ball will still have its deriders but to listen to him speak before kick-off, it all sounded so simple. Target Palace on the break and exploit their glaring weaknesses from set pieces, which after Archie Gray’s first career goal, account for six of their last nine conceded.

Should we ignore the aesthetics, it worked to a tee. The explosion of joy from Gray after heading in from Pedro Porro’s in-swinging corner was the antidote needed to stem the toxicity. Spurs’ hit rate from the dead ball is the most successfully imported weapon from Frank’s Brentford days. An even greater positive was the impact of his substitutions.

Much like the plain slice of bread which mops up the Full English, none of Joao Palhinha, Radu Dragusin, Brennan Johnson or Wilson Odobert often get the credit they deserve. They do not always add glitz but here put a gloss on what had been another underwhelming display, two disallowed Richarlison goals adding to Spurs’ frustrations.

The Odobert cameo was especially instructive. With a conventional left-winger on that side, Spurs were a different proposition to the first hour, when the role had been filled by Randal Kolo Muani. They were encumbered by the absence of the suspended Xavi Simons, their most effective (fit) creator, though it was of course entirely self-inflicted following a moment of madness against Liverpool.

It is not unusual that their first shot on target translated into a goal, not least because in many games Spurs only manage the one. Without such a ratio they might never score at all. The sparsity of chances may be looked down upon, yet how Oliver Glasner would love a conversion rate like that.

Spurs’ success required a horrorshow in front of goal from Palace as Jean-Philippe Mateta, Justin Devenny and Maxence Lacroix peppered Guglielmo Vicario’s goal to no avail. Little wonder they are the league’s lowest converters of expected goals (xG). Frank’s side cannot usually afford to be so generous.

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Until the last 20 minutes, Palace were able to control the game and it was only their profligacy that let Tottenham off the hook. That leaves two ways of interpreting a vital victory for Frank – strategic, or chaotic?

That question sums up the ambivalence towards his reign so far. Interpreting its intricacies is becoming ever more difficult for a new-look board, minus the swinging axe of Daniel Levy.

Frank was at pains this week to point out that Spurs are not really a Champions League team, and are only playing in that competition because they won the Europa League. He reiterated that they finished 17th last term. In that light, it is becomes easier to accept that even the wins should feel excruciating.

The year will be remembered for the glorious ventures in Bilbao over an appalling league record, but it ends with a toss-up of what Tottenham want to be. The Overton window of what kind of performances are acceptable shifted long before Frank’s entrance. But what matters is what works, and these are the realities of the project they have embarked on.

The first job of any new Tottenham Hotspur manager is to avoid comparisons with Juande Ramos.

Months after ending a long trophy drought, the Spurs side of 2008-09 veered into infamy by taking just two points from the opening eight games. Thomas Frank’s tally of 22 from 16 matches is now their lowest at this stage of the season since that nadir which saw Ramos sacked.

Patience is understandably wearing thin. Originally a Daniel Levy appointment, Frank’s fate now rests in the hands of a revamped board spearheaded by the Lewis family – Vivienne, brother Charles and son-in-law Nick Beucher – alongside chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and non-executive chairman Peter Charrington.

There is sympathy with Frank, who took over a side which finished 17th under Ange Postecoglou and has been derailed by injuries to James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke. It is also accepted that only Wolves players are making more individual errors leading to goals and that cannot be pinned solely on the manager.

Frank insisted after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground that there was “no quick fix” but his job is under mounting scrutiny.

The ‘Brentford mindset’

There is often a condescension towards “midtable managers” in the Premier League, the kind which used to be reserved for David Moyes and Sean Dyche. Old-school British coaches are back in vogue; instead suspicion now abounds towards managers who have punched above their weight but have yet to work with one of the “Big Six”.

That said, Frank has given ammunition to critics who believe he is still operating with the same mindset as at Brentford, going into games believing his side will not have much of the ball. Starting the north London derby with five defenders and a double-pivot backfired spectacularly and laid bare a lack of confidence which has become ingrained. So did the substitutions at 2-0 down against Forest – rather than Brennan Johnson, Mathys Tel or Wilson Odobert, Frank turned to Ben Davies, Joao Palhinha and Lucas Bergvall.

The axis

It explains why Frank has relied on midfielders whose strengths lie out of position. Rodrigo Bentancur and Palhinha have started together nine times in the league, with Spurs winning just 33 per cent of those games. It has left the No 10 isolated – Xavi Simons the biggest victim – and has limited opportunities from open play. Nor is it reserved for trips to Manchester City and Arsenal – the same approach was taken in a 1-1 home draw with Wolves. It is hard to argue it has made them more solid either – they have conceded more goals than at the same stage last season.

The xG

Twice this season Spurs have recorded their lowest xG (expected goals) in a match since records began. Against Chelsea and Arsenal they registered 0.05 and 0.07 xG respectively, but they have managed below 1xG on 10 separate occasions. And it matters particularly because Frank himself is a stickler for the metric. In a recent Sky Sports interview, he discussed discouraging players from taking long-range, lower-quality chances.

Relations with players

There is no serious suggestion yet that Frank has lost the dressing room, but there have been exchanges belying his insistence that the group are united. Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence appeared to snub him at full-time against Chelsea, and Spence reacted angrily again to being taken off at Forest. The rest looked despairing at Ibrahim Sangare’s goal from 20 yards out – a shot he was able to take despite there being eight outfield Spurs players in and around the box.

The rotations

Only twice all season have Spurs named unchanged line-ups in the Premier League. With the exception of Yves Bissouma, who is likely to leave in January after another video of the midfielder inhaling nitrous oxide, only three fit members of the senior squad are not into double figures for league appearances. They are Gray, Randal Kolo Muani, whose campaign has been disrupted by injury, and Ben Davies.

The fans

There have been two occasions when tensions have boiled over – against Manchester United, when Frank’s decision to leave on Richarlison and take off Simons was jeered, and when he told supporters they were “not true Tottenham fans” for booing Guglielmo Vicario for his error against Fulham.

Frank spoke with similar clarity at Brentford, but has not built up the good will to enjoy the same authority with a fanbase who are yet to warm to him.

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Who isn’t playing

Despite their attacking problems, last season’s top scorer Johnson – a cult hero ever since his winner in the Europa League final – has started just six league games and is now beginning to attract interest from Crystal Palace, among others. Simons has started just over half of Spurs’ Premier League games since his arrival, often on the left rather than in his preferred role as a No 10 – that is partly a tactical choice, partly an inevitable consequence of failing to properly replace Son Heung-min.

There is still an intention behind the scenes at Tottenham to persevere with the project, but it is accepted that things have to change quickly. It is not only the number of defeats but the manner of them.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Brentford (Richarlison 25′, Simons 43′)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM – “Now to watch Spurs win. It’s happening. Trust me.”

Naturally I’m happy to share a WhatsApp message I sent to a Tottenham Hotspur-supporting friend ahead of kick-off on Saturday because, for once, a hunch was correct.

In this, the stoppable force vs movable object derby, where the team with the second worst home record in the Premier League hosted the team with the joint-second worst record away, it felt as though something had to give.

And that something was Brentford giving the embattled Thomas Frank the kindest of reunion gifts, allowing this ground to go through the repertoire of hits at full-time as if it had never been their haunted home.

“Sometimes it just suddenly clicks,” Frank said after Tottenham celebrated just a second league win of the season at home.

“The team has been out of sync in some stages, but today a lot of the players were on the same page. We played with pace, penetration, and were unpredictable. It was just a complete performance.”

And a week on from booing one of their own – Vicario the subject of jeers during the loss to Fulham – this was the day where Spurs fans made amends.

There were extra-loud cheers for Spurs’ goalkeeper when his name was called out in the line-up before kick-off, a moment that made Frank feel “warm inside” after he had previously, and rightly, voiced his ire.

This reconciliation helped contribute towards a feel-good factor before a ball was even kicked, with the atmosphere boosted by Arsenal’s lunchtime loss at Aston Villa as well.

Recognising another game was a clean slate upon which a platform could be built on, Spurs’ fans and players were finally a cohesive unit.

“There was a fantastic energy between them,” Frank added, remarking that a positive atmosphere is far easier to manifest after a victory.

Now there is a real chance for momentum. Spurs welcome Son Heung-min back to this stadium on Tuesday, where the former captain will have a “proper chance to say goodbye” after leaving for Los Angeles FC in the summer while the club were on tour in South Korea.

This return will see Son take to the pitch ahead of kick-off against Slavia Prague, and the timing feels perfect in terms of maintaining this new-found positivity that simply has to last to give Spurs any chance of a deep run in Europe or a top-four push in the league.

And while Son is here, it would be wise to make the most of him. Spurs finally looked capable in his absence in attack against Brentford, but the fact this was a rarity in terms of their overall campaign so far means he can still have a role to play.

A modern great, their fourth highest goalscorer of all time, is back for some closure, and if Son has a moment with the squad, a beeline for the forwards could certainly help their cause.

In particular because right now they are on and upwards’ trajectory. Against Brentford there was plenty to enjoy, with Xavi Simons in particular shining and finally scoring his first goal.

He played like a man with a point to prove, and with Richarlison on the scoresheet too, this felt fitting in a period where Spurs will want to show they have gotten over Son’s exit for good – at the very time he waves a belated farewell.