The New York Times

Thomas Frank has been given the backing of the Tottenham Hotspur hierarchy following discussions at the top of the club.

Spurs sunk to a painful 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Sunday, their sixth in the league this season. Frank said afterwards that the Tottenham job was not a “quick fix”, and that “if no-one gets the time, no-one can turn it around”.

While there have been discussions at the club about Frank’s future, these have been regular meetings of the type that all clubs will have about their staffing and direction, rather than anything specifically reacting to events. And sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, indicated the clear position of the majority shareholding Lewis family is to stick with Frank and to give him the time that he needs.

The decision to stick with Frank is one of the first major tests of the new Tottenham Hotspur hierarchy, which effectively took over the running of the club when Daniel Levy was sacked as executive chairman in September. Vivienne Lewis has been a regular attender of Spurs games, along with her brother Charles Lewis and son-in-law Nick Beucher.

Frank was the last managerial appointment of the Levy era, signing a three-year contract at Tottenham in June, and replacing Ange Postecoglou. He was tasked with rebuilding the team who finished 17th in the league last season, while also lifting the Europa League.

After a strong start to the season, Spurs’ league form is inconsistent. They sit in 11th place, with 22 points from 16 games, although Bournemouth could overtake them with a win against Manchester United on Monday. In the Champions League they sit just outside the top eight, with 11 points from their six games so far.

But some supporters have grown frustrated with underwhelming performances. Spurs have recorded less than 0.2 expected goals in three league games already this season. There have been issues between the players and the fans, with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario jeered by fans during the defeat to Fulham last month.

But there is also an awareness at the club that Frank is trying to rebuild the whole culture, and a recognition of the fact that the situation will take time to turn around. Frank even started his successful spell as Brentford head coach slowly.

Frank admitted on Sunday night that he had to try to stay calm after such a poor Tottenham display. “I do everything to control my emotions, which is a hurricane inside me,” he said. “Of course, it’s deeply frustrating that we are not doing better after three good performances.”

Spurs had drawn 2-2 with Newcastle United before beating Brentford and Slavia Prague at home.

This week is Spurs’ first free week since August, before Spurs host Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday and then travel to Crystal Palace on December 28.

Journalists who cover Tottenham Hotspur have grown accustomed to Thomas Frank’s general optimism. In light of underwhelming results, the club’s head coach looks beyond the outcome and speaks honestly about his assessment of a given game, even if Spurs fans feel differently.

But there was no such positivity as he walked into the press conference room following the dire 3-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Sunday. In his first answer alone, Frank described their performance as “very disappointing”, “bad” and “disjointed”. Then again, for him to say anything else would have felt ludicrous. Considering the opposition started the weekend sitting 17th in the 20-team Premier League table, it was arguably Spurs’ worst performance of the season.

“I do everything to control my emotions, which is a hurricane inside me, because it’s deeply frustrating we are not doing better today after three good performances,” Frank went on to say in that post-match press conference. “It’s extremely important to be calm and measured. I’m very honest about where we are. I was also very honest today — it was a very bad performance.

“But I also know to change this will take some time. No one wants to hear about that. (But) It’s just reality.”

As Frank added, Tottenham have been well below par on too many occasions this season. Creativity has been a consistent problem under the Dane, with Spurs registering three of the top flight’s worst 10, and two of the lowest three, expected-goals (xG) performances this season. Under predecessor Ange Postecoglou, scoring goals was rarely a problem, but in Frank’s efforts to make Spurs a more coherent side, the creativity well has dried up entirely.

There is also a creeping sense of dissent, with Djed Spence reacting negatively after being substituted in the second half yesterday, just weeks after he and fellow defender Micky van de Ven appeared to ignore their coach’s attempts to keep them on the pitch to applaud the home fans after the 1-0 defeat against Chelsea. Not to mention the inexplicable individual errors leading to goals, now up to five, fewer than only well-adrift bottom-side Wolverhampton Wanderers. None of these issues have a “quick fix” to them, in Frank’s view.

Archie Gray was Sunday’s first culprit, a grounding for the 19-year-old after a bright couple of weeks where he appeared to stake his claim on a spot at the base of midfield. With the midfield combination of Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha lacking urgency and invention in possession, there was an evident need to switch things up.

Gray started the 3-0 win against Burnley on the opening weekend of the season in August and did not return to the initial line-up in the Premier League until November 29. After a positive spell, the challenging trip to the City Ground served as a reminder that he is still relatively new to the pressures of playing as a midfielder in the Premier League.

For Forest’s opening goal, Gray received a short forward pass from ’keeper Guglielmo Vicario on the edge of the box; a difficult ball for any midfielder to deal with, but perhaps one a more experienced and seasoned operator would have found a better solution for. With Cristian Romero to his left, Gray should have either swept it on quickly to his captain or looked to spin away from Ibrahim Sangare, who was closing on him from behind.

In the end, Gray’s loose touch allowed the Ivory Coast international to win possession, leading to Callum Hudson-Odoi putting Forest in front. It’s a moment Frank said Vicario deserves no blame for in his post-match press conference, suggesting Gray should have “bounced” the pass wide first time.

The teenager’s reaction to that moment was encouraging, with a volley on the turn shortly after drawing a good save from John Victor, indicating he has the character and mental strength to succeed, but their long-term issues in his position are concerning.

Compared to the same unit in the Forest team, Spurs’ midfield was short on quality, physicality and Premier League experience — given the choice, it’s not beyond belief that Frank would swap opposite number Sean Dyche’s entire midfield trio for his own.

For that, he is not to blame. There is a lack of quality in this Tottenham squad in several areas, with central midfield being chief among those.

The club have recruited young in that area, and none of those signings appear to be entirely ready to play week-in-week-out for Spurs in the Premier League, while there have been separate issues with prime-age signings such as Yves Bissouma and James Maddison, who have missed large parts of their time at Tottenham through injury. On top of that, recent arrivals have failed to hit the ground running.

Under former chairman Daniel Levy, Tottenham managers and head coaches were offered limited grace when results were not up to scratch. The new administration is ambitious, with aspirations of finishing in a European spot this season, so results and performances must improve if Frank is to build a project in north London.

But the long-time Brentford head coach is right — Spurs are not a quick fix.

Investing in youth, which has been their transfer policy since Harry Kane departed for Bayern Munich in summer 2023, is pointless unless there is a plan in place for them to realise their potential. If Tottenham are to return to competing for Champions League spots consistently, the likes of Gray and Lucas Bergvall are likely to have significant parts to play.

Judging from his outstanding record of developing talent at Brentford, Frank has the coaching and human qualities to help them get there.

For that to happen, the 52-year-old, who is in his first ‘big’ job, must be given the time to succeed, too.

Fridolina Rolfo makes it 3-3 and Manchester United’s coaching staff unleashes into the technical area, their turn for joyful chaos; Tottenham Hotspur’s time to stare into the abyss.

Apparently, this isn’t a rivalry. Not if you listened to the on-record press conferences, the politeness and slightly barbed niceties exchanged from United manager Marc Skinner and Martin Ho — Spurs head coach and Skinner’s former assistant — across the Zoom airwaves on Friday morning.

But the warring emotions on the Leigh Sport Village touchline seem to tell a different story: the surge of pure red blood cells at each of the six goals scored; the seething, silent resentment at conceding them; how both sets of coaching staff and players experienced this gloriously unhinged draw in varying states of emotion. There were jeers, boos, bone-crunching tackles, defensive bodies hurled on the line inside 50 minutes, a fourth official caught on either side by teeth gnashing over alleged officiating injustices.

If anything, this is rivalry at its best: full-throated, inebriating, believing, with all your heart, you are simply better than your opponent.

It has been nearly six years since Spurs and United arrived in the WSL in the same season, Spurs runners-up to the Championship title winners United in 2019. Their respective journeys to reach that space were different — the north London side working their way through the leagues from the bottom up, United finding a team and earning entry straight into the Championship (now WSL2) in 2018. The six years on the other side have been similarly different. Spurs’ highest finish in the WSL is fifth (2021-22), while United have only finished outside the top four once (2023-24). Where Spurs reached a maiden FA Cup final in 2023-24, the occasion marked United’s second time on the stage and the experience told as they claimed a 4-0 win.

But there is more here than just the mere coincidence of timing. There is also some slowly cooking beef: United used Spurs as an education port for midfielder Grace Clinton in the 2023-24 season, ultimately transforming the England midfielder into a sensation but not able to keep a hold of her after her loan; United then pried Norway winger Celin Bizet away the following summer. Martha Thomas, who thundered home Spurs’ third goal on Sunday, wore the United shirt for two seasons between 2021 and 2023 but was unable to break into Skinner’s plans, ultimately finding a home at Spurs.

Meanwhile, it was former United head coach Casey Stoney who put in the formal call to Tottenham’s managing director of women’s football, Andy Rogers, this summer to endorse Ho, then at SK Brann, as Spurs’ No 1 managerial candidate. Ho then convinced Spurs to poach United’s highly rated analyst Lawrence Shamieh to his backroom staff.

“He’s probably one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve worked with and one of the most dedicated and hard-working people,” Ho said in his pre-match press conference. “United definitely know that will probably be a loss for them in terms of what he gave to them and what he would do. I was just delighted that Lawrence decided to join us — he’s leaving a team that’s competing for the title and in the latter stages of the Champions League. He’s decided to come to Tottenham, where he sees a real ambitious project, somewhere where he can grow and develop around good people, good players.”

Which is the real point of tension in this gurgling rivalry: not anger or resentment so much as both sides believing they are within a certain touching distance of each other.

How great is the gap, if there is one? United might argue it’s a long stretch, given the raw numbers from Sunday night’s match: United’s xG of 4.59, their 47 touches in the opposition box, their 34 shots at goal, 11 on target, four off the woodwork and another four cleared off the line.

Spurs, by comparison, boasted an xG of 0.78, five shots with four on target, desperately defending as early as the 20th minute.

Yet, until the 75th minute, it was Spurs who were 3-0 up, giving United a mini clinic in ruthlessness and once again proving to be a far greater sum of their parts under Ho’s tinkering.

“Nine point nine times out of 10, we win that game,” assessed Skinner post-match. “Obviously, Tottenham are investing. I have a lot of respect for Martin as a coach, and basically, there’s a lot of our DNA in what they do. It’s probably clever to do as you’re growing and trying to grow a club.

“But what I’d say is the quality… that we show shows that we’re ahead, and we need to make sure that we stay in those spaces. Tottenham will take a little bit of time and investment to get there, but we need to stay ahead when we can.”

There is a degree of truth there. United, so often the subject of a limited squad this season, could boast some superiority, able to call on summer signing Rolfo from the bench to score United’s second and third goals after capitalising on Spurs’ decision to move to a back five.

Spurs, meanwhile, had just one attacking player on the bench in 20-year-old England youth international Lenna Gunning-Williams, with Charlotte Grant, Olga Ahtinen and Cathinka Tandberg all sidelined until the new year after the most recent international break, while winger Jessica Naz suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury last weekend in the 3-2 win over Aston Villa.

The absences are a severe blow to a squad that has surpassed all expectations this season, sitting fifth in the table with a team almost identical to the one that trundled to 11th last campaign.

United, meanwhile, rotated heavily for their mid-week Champions League group-stage match with Lyon, opting to rest key players Jess Park, Ella Toone, Dominique Janssen, Hinata Miyazawa and Julia Zigiotti Olme in anticipation for Sunday. They lost 3-0.

In the days following, there was even talk of getting a member of United’s coaching staff to impersonate the loud Scouse twang of Ho on the touchline in pre-match training sessions, an idea quickly abandoned.

Could it have made a difference? Both sides are desperate for an edge with just a point separating them in the league table and a League Cup quarter-final this weekend, an opportunity to discover just whether, 9.9 times out of 10, United come out on top.

The true distance between these two clubs might be better gauged after the January transfer window. But for now, Ho is mostly pleased.

“I feel a lot of pride and a lot of joy for the players because they give me everything,” he said. “With the result, obviously we’re disappointed. But in terms of the long term, if you’d have looked six or seven months ago, people wouldn’t expect us to be where we are.”

Thomas Frank has said that Tottenham Hotspur “will definitely be in the market” during the January transfer window.

Spurs’ performances have been inconsistent this season as Frank, who replaced Ange Postecoglou as head coach in June, tries to instill new ideas into the squad. They have one of the best away records in the Premier League but have only won twice at home.

The north London side were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in the fourth round by Newcastle United but are in contention to finish in the top eight of the Champions League with two fixtures remaining in the league phase.

Spurs are missing several key players including full-back Destiny Udogie who suffered a muscle injury in last week’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle which will rule him out until January. James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are recovering from long-term knee injuries while Dominic Solanke is training individually following minor ankle surgery in October.

Frank was asked about Tottenham’s potential transfer activity before Sunday’s game against Nottingham Forest.

“We will definitely be in the market, no doubt about that,” he said. “We want them as early as possible, like every other time and let’s see if we can have them before January 31.

“After the window shut in September we had the first formal meeting and it is an ongoing process. I also get to know more and more (about) the squad and players, so one thing is the daily interaction and also I have seen a lot of games live, watched them back and you see all the small good habits and bad habits from the players.

“What can you affect? Or that will be tricky? Or how the relationship is? So, that knowledge gets us closer and closer to knowing what we want.”

Spurs enquired about Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo in the summer before they signed Mohammed Kudus from West Ham United in a £55million deal. The Athletic reported last month that Semenyo has a £65m release clause in his contract which can be activated next month. Spurs remain interested in the Ghana international but he has been linked to Manchester City and Liverpool too.

Frank was asked multiple questions about Solanke’s fitness. The England international is Tottenham’s club-record signing but he has only made three substitute appearances this season due to a persistent ankle injury which he initially suffered in the summer.

Frank said he was “getting a little bit bored” of answering questions about Solanke but admitted he was training on the grass.

“Sometimes its not so easy and straight forward, maybe it’s a minor setback, maybe it’s taken a little bit slower,” Frank said about the timeline of Solanke’s recovery. “Without being too boring and talking about details, the thing is it’s more positive now and I’m looking forward to him on the training pitch and involved in the squad.”

Where Spurs could improve their squad

Tottenham spent over £150m in the summer to equip Frank with a squad strong enough to compete in multiple competitions.

They converted the loans of Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso into permanent deals before splashing out on Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons. Joao Palhinha and Randal Kolo Muani arrived on season-long loans from Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain respectively.

They still look lightweight in a few areas and the biggest problem is left wing after Son Heung-min’s departure to Los Angeles FC. Frank has experimented with Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odobert, Kolo Muani and Tel on the left but none of them have performed at a high level consistently.

A deal for Semenyo appears to be challenging but it would be remarkable. Semenyo would instantly raise the level of the starting XI and ease the pressure on Kudus to provide attacking flair.

Maddison is expected to miss the majority of the season after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury while Kulusevski has been unavailable since May. Spurs might be tempted to sign another playmaker to support Simons.

The Colorado Rapids are set to name Tottenham assistant Matt Wells their next head coach, sources briefed on the deal tell The Athletic.

It will be the first head-coaching role for the 37-year-old Wells, who is currently an assistant on Thomas Frank’s staff and previously worked for Spurs under Ange Postecoglou. He has also worked under Scott Parker at Fulham, Bournemouth and Club Brugge, racking up key first-team European experience at a young age for a coach. Tottenham declined to comment when reached by The Athletic.

Wells will be one of the youngest head coaches in MLS in 2026. Minnesota United’s Eric Ramsay, 34, is currently the youngest.

The Rapids, who narrowly missed the playoffs in 2025 under outgoing head coach Chris Armas, interviewed a number of candidates both domestic and abroad, but ultimately landed on Wells, who has been aligned with the Rapids’ early offseason moves. The club routinely works with the coaching staff on player recruitment to ensure total alignment.

The squad has some foundational pieces, led by U.S. international and club-record signing Paxten Aaronson. The 22-year-old joined the Rapids in a shock summer move from Eintracht Frankfurt, rejecting offers from RB Salzburg and Southampton, among other interested clubs.

Colorado also has English defender Rob Holding as well as a strong American contingent led by goalkeeper Zack Steffen, midfielder Cole Bassett, left back Sam Vines, defender Reggie Cannon and more.

Brazilian forward Rafael Navarro (27 goals, 10 assists over the last two seasons) currently leads the attack, but Colorado rejected lucrative transfer offers from Brazilian side Fluminense over the summer and he could still move this winter. If he goes, the club will be able to sign another designated player.

The Rapids turned to the Spurs side of the North London derby despite sharing the same ownership as Arsenal through Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. The club interviewed then-Arsenal assistant Jack Wilshere two years ago for its head coaching vacancy but has wound up with a Spurs assistant instead.

Who is Wells and what does this mean for Spurs?

Matt Wells’ potential departure from the Tottenham Hotspur coaching staff would be a significant moment, the first real change to the backroom team that Thomas Frank assembled when he was appointed as Spurs head coach six months ago.

Wells became one of Frank’s four First Team Assistant Coaches, along with Justin Cochrane, Andreas Georgson and Chris Haslam. He was the only member of Ange Postecoglou’s coaching staff who stayed on to work for Frank, a sign of how highly rated he is by the Premier League club.

During Postecoglou’s two years at Spurs, Wells took a prominent role on the training ground. In Postecoglou’s first season he was Assistant Coach, before becoming Senior Assistant Coach for the second season when Chris Davies left to manage Birmingham City. Postecoglou often took a hands-off approach to training, letting his coaches run the sessions, which meant that Wells would often have significant responsibility with the players. That season ended in triumph, with Tottenham lifting the Europa League trophy in Bilbao in May, something that Postecoglou and his staff will always be remembered for. Wells is very highly-rated within the game, with sources full of praise for his analytical eye and his inventive sessions.

Wells started out in the Tottenham academy as a youngster before becoming a coach in the academy, quickly rising to coach the Under-18s team. He then went on to be an assistant coach for Scott Parker, first at Fulham and Bournemouth, both of whom won promotion to the Premier League, and then in Belgium with Club Brugge. He returned to Tottenham in April 2023 to be assistant head coach when Ryan Mason took sole caretaker charge for the end of the 2022-23 season after the departure of Cristian Stellini. But many young coaches — Wells is 37 — ultimately want to become a head coach, and that is what the potential move to MLS represents.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank has refused to comment on allegations of Yves Bissouma inhaling nitrous oxide.

Frank said instead that the club are internally “dealing with” Yves Bissouma after The Sun published footage of the midfielder on Saturday.

This is not the first time that Bissouma has come under scrutiny for similar allegations as last year, Bissouma was given a one-game suspension by the north London club following him posting a video on his social media of him appearing to inhale laughing gas. He apologised after the incident at the time and called it a “severe lack of judgement”.

When asked about the Mali international on Monday, Frank said: “It’s an internal matter that we are dealing with at the moment, and when we have dealt with that, then I will have a comment on it.”

After the previous occasion where Bissouma was punished by the club for the act, Tottenham’s then-head coach Ange Postecoglou said: “He has made a really poor decision. “You want to understand that and try to help him through that, and as a club (see) what we can do to make sure he doesn’t make those kinds of choices and decisions in the future.

“He has a responsibility to his team-mates, to our supporters and to everyone associated with the club — and he failed in those duties.”

The recreational use of nitrous oxide — a Class C drug in the United Kingdom — has been a criminal offence since 2023, carrying a maximum two-year prison sentence.

Bissouma was dropped for Tottenham’s opening game of the season in the summer for the second year in a row, sitting out the European Super Cup defeat to Paris Saint-Germain as a punishment for repeated lateness under new head coach Thomas Frank.

After being considered likely to leave in August, he is yet to make a competitive appearance for Tottenham this campaign.

Frank also confirmed that left-back Destiny Udogie will be out until January with a hamstring injury. The 23-year-old missed his side’s 2-0 victory over Brentford on Saturday due to the issue.

“Destiny I said after the game, he picked up a hamstring injury at the end of the Newcastle game,” Frank said on Monday before his side’s Champions League game against Slavia Prague on Tuesday. “So, he’s out until January, unfortunately.”

The Danish coach confirmed that Brennan Johnson is “touch and go” for Tuesday’s game after the Wales international missed training on Monday and also entertained the idea of replacing Dominic Solanke with Mathys Tel in the team’s Champions League squad.

Solanke, 28, has only made three appearances this season, all off the bench, and has only played 59 minutes in total while dealing with an ankle injury. The issue caused him to miss all of Spurs’ preseason and he was forced to undergo minor ankle surgery on October 1, while Tel, 20, was omitted from the squad in September.

Frank said: “Of course, if I knew back then, what I what I know now, is maybe would have changed the decision. No doubt about that. Of course, it’s something we can have into consideration. We need players that are fit and available, so we have enough players to shoot with from the bench.”

Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur will participate in next summer’s Sydney Cup pre-season tournament, with Chelsea Women taking on the Women’s A-League All Stars.

The men’s teams of Chelsea and Tottenham will play each other outside England for the first time on August 1 at the 83,500-capacity Accor Stadium, four days after Chelsea take on Western Sydney Wanderers at the same venue with Spurs playing Sydney FC in the city’s Allianz Stadium on June 29.

Two weeks later, on August 12, an A-League Women All-Stars side will face Chelsea Women at the Allianz Stadium, capacity 45,000, in a match likely to feature Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter facing their Matildas team-mates.

Steve Kamper, Minister for Jobs and Tourism and Minister for Sport, said: “These four matches will give visiting fans the chance for an extended stay in our beautiful harbour city, taking in our iconic natural attractions and vibrant cultural experiences in one of the world’s premium sporting destinations.

“As we work towards our goal of a $91billion (£45.3bn) visitor economy, major events like this are crucial to create memorable experiences that inspire visitors to stay longer, return again and explore more of our great state.”

Spurs head coach, Thomas Frank, said: “Sydney is one of the world’s most iconic locations for sport and I’m excited to be able to take the team there to play two matches, including one against one of our biggest rivals.

“I’ve heard all about our passionate fanbase in Australia and it’s something the club is very proud of. I can’t wait to experience that for myself and I know the supporters will love the opportunity to watch us take on Sydney FC and Chelsea in their home country.”

A huge amount of pressure was placed on Xavi Simons’ shoulders when he joined Tottenham Hotspur from RB Leipzig for €60million in August.

The 22-year-old was expected to instantly provide Spurs with creativity while Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison recovered from long-term knee injuries. All while adapting to a new league, country and a squad coming to terms with the arrival of Thomas Frank as head coach.

Simons showed flashes of his quality over the first few months of the season but failed to score and, at times, looked too lightweight for the Premier League. He had been left out of the starting XI by Frank for four consecutive matches, including the 5-3 defeat by his former club Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, before Spurs beat Brentford 2-0 on Saturday. The Netherlands international will hope his exceptional solo effort in the 43rd minute ignites his campaign.

Simons was a victim of circumstances outside of his control after moving to north London. Spurs failed to sign Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze in the summer. The fanbase was excited by Simons’ arrival but frustrated Spurs missed out on their first-choice targets.

Simons is younger than Gibbs-White (25) and Eze (27) but has more caps (32) than the England pair combined (22). He grew up in Barcelona’s academy and finished his footballing education with PSG.

He scored against England from outside the box in the semi-final of last year’s European Championship and directly contributed to 35 goals in 58 Bundesliga appearances for Leipzig.

Simons’ quality has never been in doubt, he may even evolve into a better player than Eze and Gibbs-White, but he lacked Premier League experience. Spurs required someone to hit the ground running in Frank’s first season. None of that was Simons’ fault.

Last week, Frank compared him to Florian Wirtz. They excelled in Germany’s top-flight before earning moves to England. Wirtz has started more league games (10) than Simons (seven) and recorded more minutes (920 to 712). Wirtz cost Liverpool more than double the amount of Simons (€136.3m) and they are the perfect examples of players who need time to adapt to English football.

Simons appears to be further along in his development even though Wirtz benefitted from joining Liverpool in pre-season. There is evidence which suggests Simons is becoming stronger. He always works hard off the ball and is unafraid to jump into challenges but he won multiple duels, including with Brentford’s athletic right-back Michael Kayode, by cleverly using his body.

It was the majestic nature of Simons’ goal which should convince Frank this was a genuine turning point and he should start consistently. Simons miscontrolled Cristian Romero’s pass but won the ball back from Mikkel Damsgaard with a firm slide tackle.

Simons slipped away from Damsgaard in the centre circle before accelerating beyond Sepp van den Berg and Yehor Yarmoliuk. He calmly rolled the ball past Caoimhin Kelleher before his trademark celebration. It was a breakout out goal for Simons which his team-mates, Frank and the entire stadium desperately craved too.

It ensured Spurs won at home in the league for only the second time this season. Simons was signed to produce those match-winning moments and this needs to be the first of many.

Brentford’s head coach Keith Andrews said it was “difficult to fathom” Simons scoring six seconds after winning the ball in his own half and that “it was a goal that was very much avoidable”. Andrews was understandably irritated after Brentford lost for the second time in four days but his comments discredit the poise and sharp-thinking Simons displayed.

Simons had already set up Richarlison’s opening goal too. He tricked Van den Berg with a clever piece of movement before firing a first-time cross towards the back post.

Frank used a 4-2-3-1 system against Brentford which seemed to suit everybody. Randal Kolo Muani prefers to play centrally but linked up well with Djed Spence on the left wing. Simons drifted across the pitch and supported Mohammed Kudus on the right. Tottenham’s attack has looked disjointed in a lot of their home games but they played with freedom and fluidity.

Frank said he was “extremely happy with the offensive performance” and the team’s structure “just looked more right”. He praised Simons too and said the attacking midfielder “had that extra bit of lightness in his step” after scoring.

“Every player needs that extra good performance, so I’m happy for him,” Frank said. “He’s been working very hard. He’s a top pro, he’s so determined, he wants it so badly in every aspect of his game. And it’s just a little bit of adaptation, also that the team is a little bit out of sync. For example, Kudus after a great start, (had) a little dip because of the little injury, and a lot better today as Xavi is in a good place. Kolo (Muani) is in a better place, Richy. So everything is just coming more and more together — we need to build on it.

“That’s what I believed from the beginning, that Xavi can produce that out of nothing. Everything just needs a little bit of adaptation sometimes. This was a very good step. Now it’s the next thing to do it again and again and again.”

Look, I may as well be honest: I was here for the bloodletting.

Go to Tottenham, they said. Go and see the anger, the anguish. Get tanked up on boos. Be a neutral witness. I’m not a Spurs fan, nor a Spurs correspondent, but that was the point. The whole gig was to be an outsider, to have my innocent mind blown by the negativity. It was an anthropology assignment.

So off I went, decked out in my best hazmat suit, Britney Spears’ second-most famous song ringing in my ears. I was primed for it, my big day out in the vipers’ nest. Let’s get toxic, baby.

And then… nothing. What did I get? Something like a love-in.

On a mild, oddly serene north London afternoon, Tottenham played themselves some of the way out of their funk. In doing so, they also laid the groundworks for a rapprochement with their public after an emotionally charged few weeks.

Whether or not they can make it stick is an open question. For now, though, they should celebrate being in a position to ask it.

Even if you had gone with no prior knowledge — not heard the abuse aimed at Guglielmo Vicario last weekend, not read Thomas Frank’s response, not followed the back-and-forth about applauding the fans — you would have had an inkling before kick-off that there was something going on here, that the milk was on the turn.

The stadium announcer urged supporters to “get behind the team” — a rallying call you would never hear in the good times. Frank’s programme notes followed the same pattern. “We know our home form has to improve,” he wrote. “We are working hard to do that and together, we can build some momentum and make Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a fortress.”

There were, in the early offings, what felt almost like performative gestures, attempts to will a sense of communion into being. Pedro Porro, critical of fans after the 2-1 defeat against Fulham, made a point of applauding them before taking a corner. Xavi Simons whipped up the crowd after outmuscling his man on the touchline.

At half-time, the Spurs players again formed a little huddle before leaving the field. Against Fulham, this had the look of a defensive formation; they may as well have had shields raised, pikes poking through the gaps. On this occasion, they could lap up warm cheers. A healthy 2-0 lead will do that for you.

This, really, is the crux of it. Whatever you think of fans turning on their own players, whatever the optics or the ethics, however the manager seeks to deflect, soften or counter the blows, there really is only one reliable path out of these situations. You get supporters onside by doing things on the pitch.

Sometimes that’s as simple as taking a few shots. When Richarlison converted a Simons cross, 24 minutes in, it wasn’t just the first goal Tottenham had scored in the first half of a Premier League match since late October. It was their first shot on target in a first half since the defeat against Chelsea on November 1.

Sometimes it’s about playing with heart. Sometimes it’s about playing with intent. Tottenham ticked both of those boxes against Brentford, winning the physical battle and zipping the ball around. Mohammed Kudus and Simons were both at it. Richarlison ran his lungs out. Rodrigo Bentancur made more interceptions than peak Bletchley Park.

Mainly, of course, it’s about winning. This victory came a full 16 weeks after the last home league win, far too long by any possible metric. Of course it lightened the mood. As Tottenham repelled a few cursory Brentford attacks in the second half, the sense of relief was palpable.

It bled into Frank’s conciliatory post-match press conference.

“There are ups and downs in football and life, but I like how the team responded,” Frank said. “I like how the whole stadium responded. Maybe it was me, but I noticed when Vicario’s name was announced (before kick-off), I think there was an extra high roar. I love that. That makes me warm inside. Today, there was a fantastic energy between the team and the fans.”

Frank will be well aware we’re not yet in utopia territory. Brentford were not at the races here. Even then, Tottenham let the second half drift a touch. It will take a string of positive performances to properly erase the memory of that awful home run.

Nor will the bigger-picture issues be dispelled in a hurry. There is still structural angst among fans, a feeling that the club’s hierarchy is not quite pulling in the same direction. There have been justified grumbles about ticket prices, about the loss of the right to transfer seats to friends and family. The stadium is a marvel in so many ways but it can feel transactional. I can’t think of another football ground at which I have been advertised quite so vigorously.

This stuff is easier to digest if the on-field product is excellent. When you pay top dollar, you expect top quality. The squad, though, is not as strong as it was a couple of seasons ago. The departure of chairman Daniel Levy — not always popular but at least broadly public-facing — means there is no longer a convenient lightning rod for all this frustration.

Beating Brentford won’t change this. The underlying ennui is not going anywhere. What Frank and his players can do is dampen it down in the short term, hope to harness what goodwill there is, create a snowball effect. This is the first step, a hand extended across the void.

Fans like winning football matches. So do footballers. This game showed that this particular shared interest is as good a basis as any for synergy.

Now: does anyone want to buy a brand-new toxicology textbook?

USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino says he is aiming to return to and win the Premier League.

Pochettino, 53, has been in charge of the U.S. since November 2024 and previously coached Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea in the English top flight.

The Argentine’s contract takes him through to next summer’s World Cup on home soil, where his side will face Paraguay, Australia and a European playoff winner following Friday’s draw in Washington, D.C.

Having enjoyed success with Southampton, Pochettino was appointed as Tottenham boss in May 2014, where he remained for just over five years. In that period, Spurs twice finished third in the league (2015-16, 2017-18), as well as finishing second in 2016-17, their best-ever Premier League campaign. They also reached the Champions League final in 2018-19, losing to Liverpool.

After an 18-month spell as Paris Saint-Germain head coach, Pochettino returned to England with Chelsea but lasted only the 2023-24 season before mutually departing.

Pochettino was linked with a return to Tottenham after Ange Postecoglou’s departure in the summer, but said that was “not realistic”. Thomas Frank later took the job.

Asked by the BBC about still keeping an eye on the Premier League, Pochettino replied: “Yeah, I watch a lot. The Premier League is the best in the world. Of course I miss it.

“I am so happy in the USA, but I am always thinking about returning one day. It is the most competitive league, and of course I would love to come back again.”

Several of Pochettino’s USMNT stars play in the Premier League, including Bournemouth’s Tyler Adams, Fulham’s Antonee Robinson and Crystal Palace’s Chris Richards.

“Talking about the Premier League, and we are in London… to win the Premier League and the Champions League,” Pochettino said when asked to choose only one thing to achieve in his career.

“We were so close in Tottenham. I want to achieve this. I am still young, I have the energy, experience and motivation to try in the future. Outside, to make my family feel proud — my sons, my wife, my dog, my horses, my mum and dad, my granddaughter.”