Hotspur HQ

Tottenham Hotspur emerged from their Premier League weekend fixture against West Ham United far from unscathed. Not only did they lose 2-1 to one of the worst teams in the English top flight, but they also lost Ben Davies (and potentially Xavi Simons) to injury.

The Hammers absolutely hammered Spurs in the second half, stealing away all three points and leaving the home side hobbled, reeling badly with fans jeering and booing the disgraced Thomas Frank.

There is no turning back for Spurs and their embattled manager, whom fans were literally crying out to be fired the morning after due to the sheer futility of the display they watched unfold before their very eyes.

Tottenham have big issues at LB

But Spurs have other big worries, too. Destiny Udogie is still out at left back with his latest injury, and if he cannot return for the next game, Tottenham may not be able to call upon the player they just made his top backup, veteran Ben Davies, for the foreseeable future.

Davies had to leave the matchup pretty early with a serious injury, and Spurs had to bring in the one player they really did not want to play in that position, Djed Spence. Remember, Spurs were so dissatisfied with Spence's performances at left back, which have been truly abhorrent this season, that they brought Davies back into the fold as a regular Udogie replacemnt out left because he was such an upgrade.

Tottenham are now short handed to an even bigger degree at left back with both Udogie and Davies injured, and as West Ham exposed to everyone, Spurs cannot keep going into games with Spence playing at left back; he is so bad that it is like playing with 10 men.

So it is huge, then, that Tottenham Hotspur are set to welcome 19 year old Brazilian sensation Souza from Santos. Spurs paid a decent fee of around 15 million euros for Souza even though he is a total unknown to European football, and, therefore, they are going to expect him to bea key part of the rotation at left back immediately.

They are going to be putting a lot on his plate initially - more than maybe they even expected. With Davies injured and Spence the only option until Udogie comes back, which is hopefully soon since he is making good progress from the injury in training, Souza might get a start sooner than expected. He honestly can't be much worse than Spence, and even if he is, Spurs would have probably lost that match anyway. So let's see what Souza can do.

Djed Spence ended up coming into the game for Tottenham Hotspur against West Ham United over the weekend and played a large chunk of it, as Ben Davies, who was the starting left back for the matchup, had to be carted off early in the first half with a serious looking injury.

Well, Spence slotted back in to the left back position that used to be his and proceeded to deliver one of the many disastrous performances on the pitch for Spurs in a humiliating 2-1 loss to West Ham that should, if common sense were to prevail, spell the end of the nightmarish Thomas Frank reign as Tottenham manager.

Destiny Udogie has been sorely missed in the Spurs starting lineup with yet another injury, and while Spence used to be the weapon of choice for the club to play at left back whenever the Italian international got injured, that sentiment has clearly changed in recent weeks.

Ben Davies is the better option now

Davies has been getting increasingly more nods at left back, which is a quite indicting statement of how Spence has been playing this season. For some reason, Spence used to be lauded as an important player for Spurs, hailed for his one on one ability defensively that reached meme tastic levels due to his social media postings.

But Spurs fans have now seen through Spence, and by not starting him yet again vs. West Ham, Spurs have shown that they, too, no longer see Spence as a valid option at left back. Soon, he will not have to be an option at all, even with Davies and Udogie out, as new Brazilian signing Souza will be coming in as a true left back for the team.

Tottenham have tried to shoe horn Spence in there as a left back, but his inverted schtick simply does not work. He does not have the technical quality, instincts off the ball, positioning sense, or overall skill set to be an effective inverted left back, which is honestly a very difficult job to fulfill.

Thomas Frank has driven Tottenham Hotspur into utter embarrassment, and after watching their beloved Lilywhites crash and burn 2-1 to one of the worst clubs in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon in West Ham United, Spurs supporters want absolutely nothing to do with Frank as their coach.

They made that point abundantly clear in the stadium during the game, chanting that Frank will be sacked the following Sunday morning before serenading him with more boos and jeers after the game, which has, at this point, become an increasingly embedded custom.

And as usual after another horrid rivalry performance, Frank tried to make excuses to the media after the game about how Tottenham played well, fought hard, and deserved to win before, once again, passively aggressively throwing his players under the bus before declaring all the hard work he is putting in.

Tottenham fans are beyond fed up with Thomas Frank

At this point - and, honestly, the real point had passed months ago - Spurs fans are beyond fed up with Thomas Frank and want him out. And finally, there are reports trickling in after weeks and weeks of inexplicably defending the indefensible, Spurs are finally considering firing Frank.

Now, a new report from the Daily Mail's Craig Hope states that while Tottenham Hotspur are not preparing an imminent announcement stating that Frank is fired as their coach, there is an apparent date of destiny for the club to make a final decision on the manager.

Per Hope, Tottenham will have Frank coach the team on the upcoming Tuesday night matchup against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. But nothing is guaranteed after that match for Frank as Spurs manager.

That means the Dortmund game could be a placeholder point for Spurs to make their decision. They may be on too short of a turn around to fire Frank before such a big Champions League game, so they will give one last chance for Frank to prove them wrong, which is unlikely because even though BVB have their own flaws, they have just one loss in the Bundesliga this season and are second in the league. They are way behind Bayern Munich, but they are less behind a better team than the inferior sides Tottenham are lagging behind by even more points.

Basically, Frank's days are numbered, and while Tottenham do not want to admit it, more and more reporters around England are chiming in that the manager is on the hot seat and the very next game is now a decision point for the club. Frank could be fired officially as soon as after the Dortmund game as Tottenham scramble to get their ducks in a row.

Tottenham Hotspur truly outdid themselves on Saturday afternoon in front of their own fans, falling 2-1 to West Ham United, one of the worst teams in the Premier League and an opponent that is almost always suitable to a rebound.

But Spurs could not rebound against West Ham because they were the worse football team on that afternoon. Under manager Thomas Frank, Tottenham continued their troubling trend of being second best to the ball, disorganized tactically, out of ideas offensively, and entirely lacking any sort of threat on goal.

Frank's tactical and personnel decisions doomed Spurs, and yet another week of being caught flat footed has simply done in the heads of Spurs supporters, who had already lost their patience with Frank. This was his performance in a derby game just a week after getting knocked out of the FA Cup, and with time to prepare, he turned in an even worse coaching display.

Thomas Frank is full of excuses

After the game, in classic Thomas Frank fashion, the embattled Tottenham Hotspur manager said he would not give excuses for the performance, then proceeded to literally give the worst possible excuse and attempt to argue, as he has done all season after unacceptably sloppy losses, that Spurs should have won.

Here is what he said, as relayed by top Tottenham journalist Alasdair Gold of Football.London, “I think you all saw the game today, we could easily have won this one 2-1. I think it's no excuses. But also, the reason we're a little bit down to the bare bones with players. And we also need some of the offensive players to score a goal or two. All that is difficult for me to do like that and click with a finger. But I can promise that I'm sitting here, giving everything, every single day. I feel the trust from everyone and there's only one way, we need to keep going.”

There is so much in here that is straight up laughable. From Tottenham's manager saying he has no excuses to literally blaming injuries and the players themselves, Frank was so full of excuses that you, once again, really have to question his competency to be a leader of a top football club.

Frank sounds like a man who knows he is going to get fired, babbling about how hard he is working and then having the gall to say that he feels the trust from the organization. That trust, if it still exists, was entirely misplaced from the beginning, and the fans certainly do not trust a babblemouthed hypocrite who always has an excuse and never has an answer. Frank. Out.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters have been forced to watch months upon months of putrid performances with no end in sight. And instead of improving week to week or listening to constructive criticism about his lineup selection and tactics, Tottenham manager Thomas Frank only seems to double down on what is not working.

After beating West Ham United on the road 3-0 earlier this season, Spurs turned in a sloppy, unacceptable performance at home against the Hammers, one of the worst teams in the entire Premier League, to lose 2-1.

It was another low for Spurs, with fans raining down the boos or leaving the stadium early to send Frank a deafening message that they want him gone. Now. And although Spurs as a club have been slow to react to the negativity around Frank and his horrid results - as well as his insulting press conferences against the fans - it looks like this dreadful defeat to West Ham was a step too far in a dark direction that the club has already been headed on with this manager.

Thomas Frank needs to go

Now, according to a new report from Jonathan Norcroft of the Sunday Times, Thomas Frank is finally, at long last, really and truly on the brink of being sacked as Tottenham Hotspur manager. As the fans chanted for his immediate firing on Sunday morning, it appears Tottenham are finally listening to what the supporters have been begging for months for.

Of course, this report does not mean Frank will be fired, as it only means Tottenham are having internal discussions about it. But that is much, much better and different from what fans have heard about Frank from the club previously, which had pretty much been unbridled support for the manager, including quite strong public backing of the most underperforming coach in English football.

Tottenham have supported Frank with signings from Day One, and all he has done is thrown away any credibility or trust between himself and the supporters. He has screwed over some of his best players, to the point where future gems like Antonin Kinsky and Mathys Tel are openly discussing leaving - and those guys are infinitely more valuable to Spurs both short and long term than their cowardly, pedantic manager.

Frank is on the verge of the sack, and Tottenham fans are just hoping it leads to something, with the board coming to their senses that things will never get better.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank is under more pressure right now than any other coach in world football, and week after week, all he does is sink himself further into the abyss by continually making the wrong decisions and setting his team up for disaster.

Spurs just got knocked out of the FA Cup Third Round against Aston Villa, days after losing to Bournemouth in the Premier League. Tottenham are buried in the bottom half of the league, and despite Spurs actually supporting Frank a lot more on the transfer market than they did for predecessors like Ange Postecoglou and even Antonio Conte, Frank continues to turn in embarrassing results.

The latest untenable disaster came on Saturday in front of the home fans, who watched as Tottenham lost 2-1 to rivals West Ham United, one of the worst teams in the Premier League. Generally, West Ham are the team you are supposed to bounce back against and get things right, and perhaps nothing highlights how much worse things are getting for Spurs and how dire the situation is under Frank than the fact that Spurs lost to the Hammers after beating them 3-0 on the road earlier this season.

Tottenham fans are done

Spurs supporters had the only sensible, genuine reaction to the Thomas Frank disaster class against West Ham. As The Spurs Express relays, Tottenham Hotspur fans serenaded their manager with "You're getting sacked in the morning," during the game with massive boos afterwards. And the most common hashtag on social media directed at Frank is #FrankOut.

The sentiment had been growing for weeks, if not months, and it is now unanimous. For the vast, vast majority of Tottenham supporters, the only acceptable outcome for Frank at this point is for him to be fired swiftly on Sunday so that Spurs can end this farce and get on with their manager search. Even if the next coach is not someone as big of a name as Xavi or Xabi Alonso, nobody can be doing a worse job than Frank is right now.

Perhaps the most biting criticism of Frank is that Tottenham fans feel hopeless, knowing that there is no way things get better from here. Frank has shown no growth, only continued cowardice and a total lack of understanding of who his best players are. He has given Spurs no confidence that things will get better, and a sack fresh in the morning is the best course of action now.

Coming into the 2026 January transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur supporters had identified the left wing position as their biggest area of need. Spurs were even in on breakout superstar Antoine Semenyo back in December before the window opened, reigniting their summer interest in the Ghanaian forward.

But Semenyo swiftly rejected Tottenham for a big move to Manchester City, and the Citizens star wingers are either unavailable or uninterested in moving to Spurs, too. Tottenham could go after Oscar Bobb on the right wing, but that track has gone nowhere with only Borussia Dortmund negotiating hard for Spurs potential Savinho alternative.

Now two factors have complicated the Tottenham transfer search. Firstly, Mohammed Kudus suffered an injury against Bournemouth in countryman Semenyo's final game with the Cherries, and he will be out until after the March international break. With Dejan Kulusevski already injured for several months and with no concrete time table for a return, Spurs now have no healthy right wingers after selling Brennan Johnson.

Tottenham barely use their big talents

The other complicating factor is Mathys Tel, who has been standing out on the left wing this season and even at striker. He barely plays, though, even with Spurs missing a left winger after Son Heung-min's exit to MLS. Tel has become so disillusioned with Frank not playing him that he is actively seeking a loan out this winter, which Spurs are wisely at least trying to prevent.

Despite the complicating factors, the Daily Telegraph's Matt Law reports that Frank still wants to sign a new left winger this winter for Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham do need an established left winger, but they really needed that all the way back in the summer. Funny enough, even then, some of the players they were after were moreso right wingers, like Savinho and Monaco gem Maghnes Akliouche.

Now, Spurs supporters are turning a bit on the wing situation. Without Kudus and Kulu, they want a right winger just as badly as a left sided one and to instead see Frank give Tel and Wilson Odobert chances. Though Odobert did recently play on the right in the first game without Kudus, he is better on the left so that he can drift inside on that right foot of his, as he is more of an inverted playmaking left winger than someone who can be left isolated on the right.

Signing someone like Akliouche may crowd the right wing in the future if Kulusevski comes back 100 percent, but there is no guarantee of that, unfortunately, with how serious his knee injury is. Spurs fans have to be worried that while a left winger would help the team, Spurs would end up settling for a lesser veteran player without any top options on the market and would simply be burying Tel and Odobert on the depth chart without materially improving.

Tottenham Hotspur have one of the best young center midfielders in world football, but you would not realize it if you were a neutral outside of the focus of the club. Lucas Bergvall was instrumental in Spurs winning the Europa League last season, and the 19 year old was so good that even Real Madrid were being linked to him.

Bergvall, though, has been mostly discarded from the starting lineup by new manager Thomas Frank this season, as he is one of several young talents who, instead of being nurtured hired by a manager with the expectation of helping youth, has been actively held back from shining this season.

Things may get worse for Bergvall. As he recovers from a minor injury, Bergvall could be displaced from the starting lineup for the rest of the season by Conor Gallagher, who just joined Spurs for 40 million euros after the injury to Rodrigo Bentancur. Although Gallagher is a theoretical replacement in the squad to Bentancur as a veteran midfielder, his playing style as a No. 8 is closer to Bergvall's than Benta's.

Conor Gallagher is a looming presence

In the press conference prior to Tottenham Hotspur's big rivalry matchup against West Ham United in the Premier League, manager Thomas Frank told reporters that center midfielder Lucas Bergvall "could be available" to face the Hammers.

The thing is, Tottenham fans are not really buying what Frank is telling them. First of all, they have seen too many positive updates turn to nothing as far as injuries or returns go. Secondly, Frank has left Bergvall out of the starting lineup or contention for significant minutes so often that it is second nature to doubt him. And thirdly, Gallagher is able to play on Saturday to make his Tottenham debut and is expected to do so. Frank tends to favor veteran players in all cases, including Bentancur and Joao Palhinha over Bergvall, so it is likely he will also prefer a 40 million euro transfer from Atletico Madrid.

Bergvall is in a tough place. He has only started 10 Premier League games this season with 6 additional appearances off the bench. His starts have increased with five between January and December - half of his starts this season in the last two months - but that seems to be now on the down swing with Gallagher coming in.

Tottenham fans, unfortunately, know better than to trust Frank here. He may be giving Spurs supporters hope that they will see their teenage gem in the lineup on Saturday against West Ham, but it is, until proven otherwise, nothing more than empty words and false hope.

Tottenham Hotspur have had very few truly positive performances in the 2025/26 Premier League and Champions League seasons, but even under Thomas Frank, Spurs can always count on rivals West Ham United to help them feel good about themselves.

After gifting Spurs their most talented player in Mohammed Kudus, who was carrying the attack before an unfortunate injury the preceding weekend, the Hammers got absolutely rocked by Spurs 3-0 in September.

Now, with Spurs reeling after more disappointing performances, including a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the FA Cup the previous weekend, they have to get things right this coming weekend with their second matchup of the season against West Ham.

Tottenham could have two 'new' starters

They will not have Kudus available due to injury, but new signing Conor Gallagher could be in Thomas Frank's lineup to help the cause. And perhaps even more importantly than that, with Richarlison freshly injured for surprisingly the first time this season, another recently injured striker could make his biggest return yet.

Dominic Solanke cost Tottenham Hotspur 65 million pounds in the summer 2024 transfer window, and while he did not quite live up to that hefty, record breaking billing in his first season as a Spur, he was a positive overall and played a vital role in winning the Europa League with clutch goals and excellent all around performances.

There is no question that Solanke is the best striker in the Tottenham squad when fully healthy and at his best, and he is absolutely a higher quality footballer in the year 2026 than Richy. Now, Solanke has been out for months with a tricky foot injury, failing to start a single game in the 2025/26 season with just three appearances.

But Solanke did return to the pitch last weekend against Aston Villa for a few minutes off the bench in the FA Cup. Ahead of Saturday's big game against West Ham, Tottenham manager Thomas Frank spoke about Dominic Solanke and stated that he is making good progress, strongly hinting at more minutes ahead for the England international.

Frank told reporters, via Football.London's Alasdair Gold, "Destiny and Dom got a good week of training so are closer to playing more minutes."

We have heard Frank say similar about Solanke before, but hearing it just days away from the game itself is an entirely different equation. Randal Kolo Muani is another talented striker on the Tottenham roster, but despite a great game against PSG and a few other decent performances, he has yet to grab the job by the scruff of its neck.

Solanke's all around game and big box presence will be huge for Xavi Simons and Conor Gallagher in midfield, as well as Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert on the wings. Tottenham had pretty much given up hope on Solanke this season, so if he can start as soon as the West Ham game and start playing significant minutes, maybe, just maybe, Spurs can take off striker as a black hole of a need this season.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank is sitting on one of the hottest seats in world football, and after Real Madrid sent Xabi Alonso, whom many Spurs supporters want as Frank's replacement, packing after a Clasico defeat in a Final, the Lilywhites manager will now have even more scrutiny placed on him without a distracting manager to focus on.

Spurs have to start winning games in succession and not just lucking into a scrappy victory here and there. The club are buried in the bottom half of the Premier League and statistically as poor as they were last season with no hope of a trophy as in 2024/25 under Ange Postecoglou. And since Spurs have been signing some pretty well known players for Frank, he really has no excuses at this point.

There are a number of problems plaguing Tottenham this season, but none are bigger than the attack. It has been anemic under Frank, and while Spurs could have better strikers and left wingers, a lot of that is on Frank for not playing his best player on the field. For example, Mathys Tel is always THE standout attacker for Tottenham when he plays, yet Frank sticks the future superstar on the bench so much that the Frenchman is now practically begging for a six month loan just so he can play.

Thomas Frank has to do better himself

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the next Tottenham fixture against local rivals West Ham, Thomas Frank finally admitted that the offense is clearly lagging behind, "It's a culture that's getting a little big stronger. I can see the small signs of the culture in the training. Very intense and focused, working very hard on the offensive part of the game. We know the defensive side looks better and the set pieces but we need to improve the offensive side."

Not only is Frank stating the obvious about the Tottenham Hotspur attack, but he is also stating the obvious about himself. Because so many of the flaws with Tottenham offensively this season go back to Frank.

He has taken the wrong approach with his starting lineup, marrying himself to the restrictive and inconsistent Richarlison just because of experience and goals he soaks up from the much better players servicing him chances. He has not done the most to help young stars Xavi Simons, Mathys Tel, and Wilson Odobert while running his best player, Mohammed Kudus, into the ground to the point of injury.

Yes, injuries have badly hurt Frank's ability to use his best attacking lineup, and it is true that Tel and Odobert are not true Premier League stars yet. But Frank has to work with what he has been given, and what he has been given is much better than what he has gotten out of them. Everyone knows it.