Tottenham have sacked Thomas Frank after failing to turn the club’s fortunes around.
Thomas Frank has been dismissed with Tottenham Hotspur hovering above the Premier League relegation zone.
The Dane has just been sacked by the Lilywhites after just eight months in charge. A 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle United on Tuesday evening proved his final game in charge, with the club slipping to 16th in the table.
The writing had long been on the wall for Thomas Frank, with the 52-year-old enduring chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” from his own fans during the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle, as well as boos at half-time and full-time whistle. He struggled to make an impression in his time in the dugout at White Hart Lane, resulting in the fans becoming increasingly critical of their gaffer’s philosophy, style of play and in-game management.
Thomas Frank reveals one of the main reasons behind Tottenham’s poor results before getting sacked
Thomas Frank has been hanging onto his job at Tottenham for several weeks now. Large sections of the fanbase had turned against him, but the fact that the Spurs board stuck by Frank during such a difficult and toxic period proves they badly wanted the appointment to work. Unfortunately, it didn’t.
After the defeat to Newcastle, the 52-year-old revealed that injuries have taken a toll on his squad, and they must be taken into consideration for the ongoing slump.
“The injuries, I think they need to be massively taken into consideration”, Frank said.
“I haven’t really said it too much, but everyone can see the impact of things”.
Indeed, the injury problems in N17 are difficult to ignore. The injury list has been growing with every passing game; Destiny Udogie came off against Manchester United at the weekend with a hamstring problem and has been subsequently ruled out for five weeks. Wilson Odobert became the club’s latest casualty after landing awkwardly following an attempted tackle on Harvey Barnes. He received treatment on the pitch before walking straight down the tunnel when replaced by compatriot Mathys Tel.
Every single outfield position has been hit by injuries. Having more than 10 first-team players in the infirmary would see any manager in the world struggle to play his brand of football and get results, let alone Frank. Not to forget, key creative outlets James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are yet to feature for Tottenham this season, having been sidelined with serious knee injuries since last year.
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand recently sympathised with the Dane for having to deal with so many injuries. After considering all the factors, the hierarchy felt the situation had become untenable, and a change was required at the helm. They have come to the conclusion of sacking Frank, but deep-rooted problems such as poor management of injuries and rushing players back has to be dealt with an iron fist.