Thomas Frank is fearless by Tottenham’s history of looting managers while he is set up to take the lead on his first game with the club.
Frank was appointed as the successor to Ange Postecoglou after the Australian was fired, despite leading Tottenham to Europa League Glory, with a 17th placed finish and 21 defeats in the Premier League that led to his exit.
Postecoglou was the fifth manager who was fired by Tottenham during Frank’s previous term of office in Brentford. After taken over in 2018, Frank led the bees to promotion of the championship in 2021 and then stabilized in an impressive way as a Premier League club.
Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte were also fired by Spurs during Frank’s time with their London rivals.
But the DANE is not deterred by that disturbing recent history.
Frank told a pre-match media conference prior to the friendly Saturday with reading: “I like to challenge myself.
“I have been so privileged, I have never been fired before. So that is one of the reasons why I took the job, so I could get a little more risk in my daily life.
“I come to a big club that is expensive. We have to perform because it is. I am, it is the staff, it is the players, it is everyone. And we have to do that together.
“So I love the ambitions and everything I do, every decision I have made so far, everything is for the long term.
“It is not about surviving one game or a year or 18 months or what the average is, no, it is for the long term.
“I will do everything, every day to work on bringing this club to new heights. That is the ambition.
“If I wasn’t ambitious, I wouldn’t be here. I look forward to it.”
Asked about the 1-0 victory of Spurs on Manchester United in the Europa League final, Postecoglou added: “It was positive that they won. They received the trophy that this club earned.
“Hopefully we can add to that. The first goal is to compete in all four tournaments.
“That must be the ambition we are building. The 2019 Champions League final was the last season that the club could compete in more than one competition.
“We must be able to compete in Europe and the cups. If you can compete, there is a chance that you can be top.”
