THOMAS FRANK is on the brink of being sacked at Tottenham.
Club chiefs are now weighing up whether to axe him before Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund in a major U-turn.
It comes after the hierarchy, previously steadfast in their support of the Dane, registered the scale of the furious fan reaction to Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to relegation-threatened West Ham.
That loss left Spurs languishing in 14th in the Premier League, eight points off the top five and ten from the relegation zone.
Senior figures are understood to be keen to take the temperature of Frank’s squad to assess if there is still internal support for the former Brentford boss.
But there is a growing sense that the Dane cannot restore any authority and that the best move for all parties could be to bring his miserable seven-month reign to an end swiftly.
Should Frank go before the Dortmund game, recently-appointed assistant coach John Heitinga would be an obvious caretaker candidate.
That is given the former Netherlands defender, 42, has experience as a No1 at Ajax from earlier this season – albeit he only lasted five months in the job.
Ironically, Frank was a big driver of the recruitment of Heitinga, who also worked under Arne Slot at Liverpool when they won the Premier League title last term.
Former fan favourite Mauricio Pochettino would be among the candidates to take over on a permanent basis after the World Cup when he finishes his duties with the US national team.
BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK
Another name in the frame is free agent Xavi, the Barcelona legend who bossed the Catalans to the La Liga title in 2023.
Frank oversaw Sunday’s training and recovery session, as usual, with no clarity given to the players from the club over their manager’s future.
The Dane is due to take training on Monday ahead of the Dortmund game, which will be open to the media for 15 minutes from 2.15pm.
He is then due to conduct a press conference previewing the match at 3.30pm.
But club sources would not confirm last night whether Frank would be fulfilling either duty at their Hotspur Way training ground.
Frank, 52, was only appointed in June but has presided over a dismal domestic campaign, winning just seven of his 22 Premier League games and going out of both cups.
Fan anger has reached unprecedented levels with supporters singing “You’re getting sacked in the morning” to Frank and booing him off the pitch after Saturday’s defeat.
Spurs’ board, and in particular chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, have been supportive of Frank amid his struggles.
But they are now weighing up whether to persevere with the Dane just seven months into his reign given the poor results and how toxic the situation has become with the fanbase.
Frank’s Premier League average points per game record of 1.23 is the worst of Spurs’ last eight managers, including next-worst Ange Postecoglou (1.52) who was replaced by Frank in the summer after losing 22 Prem games in a single season.
Tottenham are down to the bare bones to face Dortmund, with midfielder Joao Palhinha among a growing list of crocked players, playmaker Xavi Simons an injury doubt, new signing Conor Gallagher ineligible and defender Micky van de Ven suspended.
Yves Bissouma, who featured for the first time all season against the Hammers, is not registered.
Speaking on Match of the Day, pundit Wayne Rooney said: “I felt for Thomas Frank at the end of the game, it’s not a nice place to be. He will feel a change is coming.
“The Tottenham fans have spoken, we have seen it before with the Tottenham fans, they aren’t happy with what’s going on. It looks like he will lose his job.”
But defeat to the Germans – particularly if the fans react in a similar manner to how they did for the West Ham game – could ramp up the pressure to untenable levels.
Defeat to West Ham has left Spurs eight points off fifth place, meaning the prospect of qualifying for Europe is diminishing.
Spurs travel to relegation-threatened Burnley on Saturday and then face a horror fixture run of Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle and arch-rivals Arsenal.
Pochettino, 53, retains hero status among the Spurs fanbase after an impressive spell managing the club between 2014-19 where he turned them into genuine Premier League contenders and reached the Champions League final – though they never won anything.
He has since bossed rivals Chelsea yet plenty of supporters would be fully behind his return to N17 after the World Cup this summer.
