‘Stinking out the Champions League’ – Thomas Frank claims thrown out after Tottenham victory
Thomas Frank’s attempts to paint his Tottenham project in a more positive light have been flatly dismissed.
Tottenham beat Slavia Prague 3-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday night to follow up the Xavi Simons-led Spurs win over Brentford at the weekend.
Those two results eased pressure on Spurs boss Frank after a bruising November which saw his job called into question after damaging defeats to Chelsea, Arsenal, PSG and Fulham.
But in trying to accentuate the positives from the European win in midweek the Dane was put in his place by Simon Jordan, much to the amusement of Jim White.
Simon Jordan rubbishes Frank’s assessment of Tottenham win
Tottenham won thanks to an own goal and a penalty apiece from Mohammed Kudus and Simons at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium, leaving them ninth in the Champions League group and just outside the automatic qualification places.
Slavia Prague are 32nd out of 36 teams, having drawn three and lost three, but following the match Frank wanted to put a positive spin on the win by suggesting the Czechs are a difficult proposition.
He highlighted: “The team just gelling a little bit more and more together in a tricky game against an opponent that is not easy to play against, Slavia Prague, big respect for them.”
In reacting to those comments live on talkSPORT ex-Crystal Palace chairman admitted he believes Frank is a “good manager” but rubbished his claims about the opposition, claiming the Brentford win was far more important.
He said, to laughter from White: “I know he makes the observation that Slavia Prague are a difficult team to play against. No, they’re not. They’re stinking out the Champions League and everyone’s beating them. So you should beat them.”
Richarlison running out of chances under Frank
For all the positive play in North London on Tuesday Spurs were making hard work of limited opposition in front of goal.
Thankfully for Frank the visitors gave his side three helping hands by putting one into their own net and fouling twice in the box.
But given how little in terms of positive performances the home fans have seen this season, and how difficult last month must have been for the morale of the squad in general, the manager has to make the most of everything he can.
If he had a striker who could be relied upon to regularly convert the simple chances there would be a lot more confidence in his premiership, and a huge amount is going to depend on how Dominic Solanke does when he returns from injury.
Richarlison is undoubtedly a quality player on his day but for whatever reason his time in a Tottenham shirt frustrates, while Randal Kolo Muani is also proving very inconsistent up front.
The Brazilian got the start in the Champions League but his shot straight at the keeper when presented with a golden opportunity to open the scoring summed up his Spurs career, and Frank will likely be losing patience.
A long-range stunner against Arsenal was a reminder of what he can offer, but the fact that it meant next to nothing in a 4-1 defeat was par for the course, so a clean slate elsewhere may be best for him and the club sooner or later.
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