The New York Times

Tottenham Hotspur’s playing style has been like a rollercoaster ride in recent years.

The breathless approach taken by Mauricio Pochettino made way for the pragmatism of Jose Mourinho, while a low-block-and-counter-attack approach was short-lived under Nuno Espirito Santo. Antonio Conte’s regimented methods were initially effective, but entertainment was lacking. Enter Ange Postecoglou as the perfect antidote to that.

Thomas Frank was hired to be the man who could balance all of the above attributes into a single, coherent system, but things did not go to plan during his eight months at the helm, leaving Spurs with the task of finding their sixth manager in seven years.

To avoid a further slide down the league table, Spurs have acted quickly after verbally agreeing a deal to appoint Igor Tudor as interim head coach until the end of the season. Tudor was most recently the head coach of Juventus, but parted ways after just seven months and 24 games in charge in October on the back of a winless streak of eight games in all competitions.

Tudor has a penchant for firefighting, with his last two roles coming in the latter stages of a season. His appointment in Turin came last March after Thiago Motta’s sacking, almost one year after a similar short-term role as Lazio head coach in 2024 following Mauricio Sarri’s resignation.

Spurs fans will be pleased to know that the former Croatia international had an immediate impact on results after his previous appointments. At Lazio, his 18 points from a possible 27 were bettered only by Atalanta in that period, while he suffered just one loss in the remaining nine league games at the end of the 2024-25 season at Juventus.

Crucially, what kind of coach are Spurs getting? More Conte than Postecoglou? More Mourinho than Frank? Allow The Athletic to break things down.

The first point of note is how Tudor typically sets up his team.

Across his recent spells at Marseille, Lazio and Juventus, the 47-year-old prefers a back-three formation — most commonly using a 3-4-2-1 shape with narrow forwards supporting a central striker.

Spurs employed a back-three system on occasion under Frank, so the system change would not be an overwhelming change for their centre-backs. Cristian Romero, Radu Dragusin and Micky Van de Ven would be the most likely trio in the centre of defence, at least until Kevin Danso returns. The Austria defender is set to be sidelined for several weeks, having snapped a ligament in his big toe during Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League two weeks ago.

Tudor will also be without Romero for his first three league matches in charge, with the club captain serving a ban for his red card challenge on Casemiro in the 2-0 defeat to Manchester United.

With a fit and firing wing-back partnership of Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro, Spurs have the right profiles to suit Tudor’s preferred system. However, the pair are sidelined with injuries, which look set to keep them out of action for more than a month. Djed Spence has only just returned from the physio’s table for Tuesday’s defeat to Newcastle United, but is a capable alternative on either flank. Archie Gray deputised at right wing-back under Frank, but is more comfortable in central midfield, while January signing Souza, 19, from Brazilian side Santos, lacks top-level experience.

The biggest questions are in Spurs’ attack. Injuries mean any interim coach would have faced a lack of options across the front line, but the shortage of right-sided players may prompt a change of system from Tudor’s preferred 3-4-2-1.

Mohammed Kudus, Frank’s first-choice option on the right wing, will be out of action until at least the March international break. Dejan Kulusevski — arguably Tottenham’s brightest creator — has been sidelined for the entirety of the season with a complicated patellar injury. In Kudus’ absence, Frank used Wilson Odobert from the right, with the France Under-21 international enjoying his best stretch of form since joining Spurs in August 2024 — but he sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury on Tuesday.

Until Kudus returns, there is no natural right-wing alternative. Mathys Tel is primarily a left-sided attacker or centre-forward. Conor Gallagher, who replaced Odobert on the right after his injury against Newcastle, is more comfortable in central midfield.

That brings us to Randal Kolo Muani, whose loan spell has been disastrous. He has made 18 appearances in the league without registering a goal or an assist. He is, however, Spurs’ top scorer in Europe (three goals in seven games), netting twice against Paris Saint-Germain and once against Eintracht — clubs he has represented (he is contracted to PSG).

The good news is that the France international enjoyed a good loan spell at Juventus in the second half of last season — mostly under Tudor — scoring 10 goals across 19 matches in the league and Club World Cup, occasionally playing beside or behind Dusan Vlahovic. Perhaps the potential to partner Kolo Muani with Dominic Solanke, who has scored four goals since returning from a long-term ankle injury in January, will prompt Tudor into considering a change in formation.

Whatever the system, Tudor’s principles are predominantly centred around front-foot, aggressive football that is grounded in strong physicality.

This can be seen most clearly in Tudor’s last full season in management during the 2022-23 campaign with Marseille. From their playstyle wheel below, dominance in possession and territory (Field tilt, 86 out of 99) shows that Tudor prefers his side to be the protagonists on the ball, but what is most notable is their out-of-possession approach.

Few teams across Europe’s top seven leagues could match the defensive energy that Tudor asked of his side (Intensity, 97th percentile).

While his 3-4-2-1 system will fall into a back five when retreating into a lower block, Tudor is keen to impose a high-pressing defensive approach when he can.

As evidence of this, no Ligue 1 side won possession in the final third more frequently than Marseille’s 6.0 per 90 in 2022-23, with a man-to-man press often at the heart of their smothering recovery of the ball.

Converting those high regains into goalscoring chances did not quite marry up with their volume, with just one goal scored in a sequence following such an action — good enough for the joint-second lowest return in the division that season.

An example of Tudor’s aggressive approach with Marseille is shown below against Lyon.

A sideways pass is the trigger for Marseille to step up, with the head coach standing with his arms out wide in expectation within frame one.

It’s a risky sequence, but the kind of press that Tudor often encourages, where players must be switched on and prepared to follow the opposition aggressively up the pitch. Balerdi, the wide centre-back, has to step far from his position and engage in a critical defensive duel, but the reward is an overload in attack.

In another example against Troyes, Tudor’s team are slow to get up the pitch after a clearance, but a lung-busting run from Cengiz Under kickstarts the team-wide press.

Again, the pass out wide is the trigger; within seconds, the Turkish winger is applying pressure to the receiver, with his two midfielders and wide centre-back Chancel Mbemba tearing forward in support.

Yoann Salmier has limited options — each of his team-mates are being marked — and plays a risky pass into midfield, where Marseille’s Valentin Rongier steps in to win the ball, before slipping it through to Under to score.

At its best, Tudor’s out-of-possession approach is suffocating, a full-blooded style that excites fans and sets adrenaline pumping through the team. But such a daring press is prone to moments of misjudgement, and can just as easily unravel as energy lulls and tackles aren’t followed through.

There are familiar patterns during Juventus’ 2-2 draw with Villarreal, as Teun Koopmeiners charges out of midfield to apply pressure after the sideways pass in frame one. Wing-back Joao Mario also steps up, but as Villarreal move the ball back inside, we can see how stretched the midfield has become, with Koopmeiners still high up the pitch.

Villarreal midfielder Dani Parejo points to the space in frame three, and Rafa Marin obliges, firing the ball through to Santi Comesana and taking six Juventus players out of the game. After a quick one-two, the ball breaks for Georges Mikautadze, who opens the scoring.

In a more extreme example later in the first half, Juventus use an opposition goal kick as a chance to step up, leaving acres of space between the midfield and the back four.

Sure enough, Villarreal clip the ball over the top and skip the press. And although Pierre Kalulu does well to jump from defence and concede the foul, it’s a sequence that demonstrates the unnecessary pressure that Tudor’s sides can sometimes find themselves under after committing too high.

If they don’t make meaningful challenges in the final third, they leave themselves a few good passes away from being picked apart.

Despite its flaws, many facets of Tudor’s tactical style suit this Tottenham squad, and there is the potential to implement an effective high-pressing strategy when everyone is fit.

Van de Ven, Romero and Danso are capable of playing that proactive wide centre-back role, while Porro and Udogie can press high from the wing-back roles and offer plenty in attack. The midfield will need to be switched on, energetic, and physically capable, but Pape Matar Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, Conor Gallagher and Joao Palhinha seem to fit the bill.

Tudor will reinstate rigorous organisation and demand plenty from his players, and may inspire a short-term response. But with a stretched squad and morale on the floor, there are no guarantees that the coach’s adventurous style won’t be misplaced.

Tudor’s arrival might well be the closest appointment to Spurs’ “To dare is to do” club motto in recent years.

When Thomas Frank was appointed Tottenham Hotspur’s new head coach in June 2025, his task was to rebuild the club’s culture. But the defining image of his tenure — or rather the defining sound — was booing. And booing directed specifically at him.

Within a few months of Frank taking over, booing became a routine part of a Tottenham matchday.

At times, it was directed at the players, like at Guglielmo Vicario when Spurs lost to Fulham on November 29. When Tottenham drew at Brentford and lost at Bournemouth in January 2026, Frank was singled out for treatment by the Spurs away end. It got louder and more pointed time after time, when Spurs lost at home to West Ham United, when they drew away at Burnley. During Frank’s final game, the 2-1 defeat by Newcastle United last night, fans’ anger was mixed with resignation and a new sense of fear about the relegation threat. But they sang ‘Sacked in the morning’ at Frank again. And this time, they got their way.

There have been some unpopular managers at Tottenham in recent years. But even at the worst moments for Ange Postecoglou and Antonio Conte — the last two permanent predecessors — they were not as rejected, as scorned as Frank was on Tuesday night. Even the mutiny that led to Nuno Espirito Santo’s dismissal did not feel quite as personal as the anger that Frank has faced for the last few months.

For all the talk of cultural change and building a new environment, Frank never made much of an impression on the players, and leaves Spurs as the most unpopular head coach they have had in modern times.

Only by a few months does Frank also avoid being the shortest-serving. He did at least make it more than halfway through his debut season. By surviving all the way through to February, he did far better than Jacques Santini and Nuno, both of whom took over in the summer (Santini in 2004, Nuno in 2021), and then left in early November. But while Frank only managed Spurs for 26 league games, he still managed to witness some of the most dramatic changes in Tottenham’s history. Changes that transformed the structure and direction of the club. Changes that left Frank exposed and demanded even more from him.

What Spurs have needed, more than anything, is a football team that people could believe in and rally behind. And Frank was never able to deliver it.

While Frank left the job in fairly typical circumstances — as with Conte and Mourinho, he was sacked mid-season — he came to it unlike almost any other Spurs manager. His was a uniquely mixed inheritance. Because last season Tottenham both won the Europa League, their greatest moment for a generation, and finished 17th in the Premier League, their worst season for almost 50 years. It was a painful decision to dismiss Postecoglou but one that Daniel Levy took to rebuild Spurs as a consistent force in all competitions. Frank was sacked having utterly failed to rebuild Spurs’ standing in the Premier League, effectively running last season on repeat, from the huge gap between the records at home and in Europe to the devastating injury crisis.

Tottenham wanted to give Frank the best possible tools to succeed so he was allowed to assemble a high-quality backroom staff, including members from Brentford and some recruited from outside. It was an early sign of the club’s commitment to Frank’s rebuilding. But the most important tools for any manager are the players. And there is no avoiding the fact that Frank was not handed a strong group.

Spurs never replaced Harry Kane when he left in 2023, just as they did not replace Son Heung-min soon after Frank took over. In Postecoglou’s last Spurs press conference, he had bemoaned the “development gap” left by the club’s replacement of experienced players with teenagers. Tottenham had clearly been overtaken by Aston Villa and Newcastle, and had fallen further behind the rest of the ‘Big Six’. It was time to make up the gap.

Frank wanted more proven quality and goals from out wide, a new No 6 to shore up the midfield and, most importantly, a new No 10, with Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison both sidelined with long-term injuries. Spurs were able to sign Mohammed Kudus and Joao Palhinha quickly enough to feature in their season opener, the UEFA Super Cup, but a top-quality No 10 proved more elusive.

They had targeted Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze, got close to both, but ended up with neither. Levy was suddenly so desperate for a win in the market, and eventually did a £52million ($71m) deal to sign Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig.

Gibbs-White and Eze would have hit the ground running at Spurs, but Simons needed more time. Randal Kolo Muani, Kudus, Palhinha and Simons are not bad players, but balanced against the departure of Son, and the injuries to Maddison, Kulusevski and Solanke, not many would say that Frank started with a strong squad. The window ended as they all do at Tottenham, with fans furiously arguing about whether it had made the team and the squad better or worse. It felt like time for everyone to take a breath and focus on the football.

But instead, September 4, 2025, proved to be one of the most dramatic days in the history of the club. Levy, who had run the club with near-total control for almost 25 years, was sacked. It was a genuinely shocking moment which marked a radical change in how the club was run. And it meant that the man who led the process to appoint Frank, who signed the players he would choose from, was no longer in the building.

The challenge for Frank was to take this patchy squad, built together by a series of different executives for a series of very different managers, and turn it into a functioning team. A team that could correct the apparent excesses of the Postecoglou era — the ups and downs, the defensive frailty, the inability to play two good games each week — replacing them with something robust, flexible and sustainable. Just like Frank’s Brentford team, who got promoted to the Premier League and managed two top-half finishes in four years, but on a bigger scale.

And there was certainly a moment, a few games into the season, when it felt as if that hope might even be easily and quickly realised. Frank’s first game was the Super Cup in Udine against Luis Enrique’s brilliant Paris Saint-Germain team. Frank unveiled a bespoke 3-5-2 system. Palhinha and Kudus both shone on debut. Spurs shut the game down, excelled on set pieces, went 2-0 up, only to fade at the end and lose on penalties. A missed opportunity for silverware, but a clear statement of intent.

When Spurs beat Burnley 3-0 at home on Premier League opening weekend, the players were visibly buzzing with optimism about this new chapter. Best of all, Spurs went to the Etihad Stadium in their second league game, deployed another masterclass of organisation, pressing and countering, and won 2-0.

Looking back, the start of Frank’s tenure was also its peak. Burnley was one of only two home league wins. Manchester City was their only win against a top side. Beyond that, the best teams they beat were, with all due respect to the others, Villarreal, Everton, and Borussia Dortmund.

So many of the problems Frank could never escape were evident in his third league game, a 1-0 home defeat by Bournemouth that flattered Tottenham. Spurs were painfully limited on the ball, recording an xG of just 0.19 (this felt shocking at the time, but they managed to record even lower figures against Chelsea and Arsenal). They looked predictable in their build-up, unable to move the ball forward or create chances from open play. They did not look like they knew how to take the initiative in a home game.

And every single subsequent home game confirmed this to be the case. Opponents would come away from playing Spurs marvelling at how predictable Tottenham were, how poor they were in possession, and how easy they were to stop. Especially when so much of Spurs’ play was exclusively directed down the sides, and never through the middle of the pitch.

When they hosted Wolves — rooted to the bottom of the table — in September, they were even worse. They needed Palhinha to score in added time just to rescue a point. When Chelsea came to Tottenham, one of the biggest games in Spurs’ calendar, they looked utterly clueless in possession, finishing with an xG of 0.1. Their best moment was Rodrigo Bentancur not quite connecting with a Kevin Danso long throw. Against Fulham, they were 2-0 down after six minutes and could not recover. But no home game could compare to the toxicity when they lost to West Ham on January 17, and then to Newcastle on February 10, the two games when the stadium found its voice, united against the head coach.

Put this all together, and it made for one of the worst home records in the Premier League. Now, Spurs’ struggles at their £1.2billion stadium were nothing new. They were miserable there in the second half of last season, too. But Frank offered nothing for the home crowd to believe in and get behind. And with every passing home game, fans showed up less confident and less optimistic. Over time, the negative atmosphere toxified relations between the fans, the team and Frank himself.

After the Chelsea defeat, Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence walked off, straight past Frank, ignoring his requests that they acknowledge the crowd, an act for which they both later apologised. During the Fulham defeat, some sections of the crowd jeered Vicario after a costly mistake, leading to Frank saying that they were not “true fans”. Frank’s standing with the crowd never recovered from that moment when he challenged them. In recent years, most of the negativity at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was directed at Levy. This season, it started to turn on the team and then overwhelmingly on the manager. Frank was never able to turn that tide.

The respite, such as it was, came away from home. Frank’s Spurs took 19 of their 29 points on the road. If the blueprint was the City win, they followed it well around the country, marrying defensive organisation with set-piece efficiency. That was how they won at West Ham United, Leeds United, Everton and Crystal Palace, four away wins that suggested that Spurs did have a method to win.

Even if it was not a method that worked at home. Even the 2-2 draws at Brighton & Hove Albion and Newcastle were perfectly creditable, games when the team showed fight and commitment. But the biggest away game of all came at Arsenal in November. And Frank’s negative 5-4-1 set-up, like a League One team trying to earn an FA Cup replay, added to fears that he did not fit with Spurs.

It was after the Arsenal game that the same question was asked, both inside and outside the club: was this job too big for him? Would he be able to make the step up from Brentford to Spurs?

It was a question to which Frank was never able to provide an adequate answer. It was after the Arsenal and Fulham defeats in November that Fabio Paratici, then Spurs’ sporting director, concluded that he did not fit this job. And after the 3-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest in December, Paratici started talking to Fiorentina, leading, along with his personal circumstances, to a swift departure from his new role.

Even on Frank’s few good days — those counter-attacking away wins — Spurs still set up playing reactive, minimalistic football, football that jarred with the traditions of the club. When Spurs fans in the away end at Brentford sang “Boring, boring Tottenham” after an unambitious 0-0 draw on January 1, it was the beginning of the end for Frank.

Many of the players did not enjoy the limited nature of Frank’s football either. A source close to one senior first-team player — speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationship — said, just before Frank’s dismissal, that he was ultimately a coach for a “smaller team”, focused on compact defensive shape, long balls and counter-attacks. This meant that Frank was unable to get the best out of the talent available to him, with the player in question feeling that he was only able to perform at “10 per cent” of his potential because of Frank’s restrictive tactics.

Frank told those close to him that the second half of the season would be “painful” and that although Spurs have great facilities, they also had a squad low on quality. This applied to the left wing, where he tried various players with none really excelling. Tottenham’s recruitment department deserve a portion of the blame for assembling a disjointed squad but Frank never settled on a starting XI and his constant changes impacted the team’s momentum.

It is a simple fact of football that managing bigger teams is different from managing smaller ones. There are plenty of examples of very good managers — even great ones — struggling to make a big step up. Like Roy Hodgson going from Fulham to Liverpool in 2010. Or David Moyes going from Everton to Manchester United in 2013. Or even Nuno going from Wolves to Spurs in 2021.

Just like Hodgson, Moyes and Nuno before him, Frank struggled to convince that he could manage a club with the size and expectations of Tottenham. He was an intelligent, thoughtful voice in public, popular with staff, keen to know everyone’s name. But there was a perception that he was too nice, maybe lacking the ego or the out-sized charisma needed to lead a club of this size. The sight of Van de Ven and Spence walking past him when he urged them over to the fans played into that.

Another Tottenham player believed that while Postecoglou was perhaps not the best coach, the players respected him, admired his charisma and listened to what he said. But those players soon stopped listening to Frank, because, as this player saw it, he did not have the personality required to coach a big team.

Another long-standing training ground source concurred, pointing out that the players would ultimately run through brick walls for Postecoglou, whatever his faults, as proven by the Europa League win. The players never had the same respect for Frank, and knew that they did not have to work as hard for him. Which meant that — in the eyes of this source — they never trained with the same intensity they showed under the previous manager. The players knew that they could get away with less.

It should not be brushed over that Frank faced serious issues in terms of player behaviour and dynamics that he was not able to solve. Discipline and time-keeping were always a concern. After Spurs lost so painfully to Arsenal, Frank lectured his players in the dressing room about standards dropping. The next day, multiple players — including Cristian Romero — still turned up late. The club deny this was the case. The example of Romero is an instructive one. He was the only possible choice as captain when Son left, but his behaviour on and off the pitch was not always what you want from the man wearing the armband. Frank always backed Romero in public, even after he had criticised the club’s hierarchy and then received a four-match ban for a challenge on Manchester United’s Casemiro a few days later, but privately he held reservations about the defender’s leadership qualities.

That, in part, is why the club realised they had such an issue with leadership over the course of the season. Sources close to players would repeatedly refer to the lack of direction on the training ground. Or to the fact that, after a defeat, the players would get too down on themselves, with no one there able to lift and refocus them on the task ahead. It left a miserable mood during Frank’s last two months which no one could ever shift. And explains why the club signed Conor Gallagher — and pursued Andy Robertson — during last month’s transfer window. They were desperate to plug that character gap.

Nor should it be forgotten that Frank had to contend with an injury crisis as bad as the one that sunk Spurs’ league campaign last year too. Maddison and Kulusevski — their two best midfielders — did not start a single competitive minute for him. Solanke, the best centre-forward, did not start a game until late January. Most of the rest of the team went down with significant injuries. Bentancur, Danso, Pedro Porro, Richarlison, Lucas Bergvall and Kudus were all also missing for the final weeks of Frank’s tenure. Wilson Odobert tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during Frank’s final game in charge.

This would not be a very strong squad with everyone fit. So take those players out of it, and they were never going to be able to challenge this season.

But as a public figurehead, Frank never quite fit, never quite managed to find the right words when speaking in public. For someone who always had a reputation for talking intelligently in public, he appeared to struggle with the brighter spotlight that comes with being the public face of a big club. Spurs fans grew frustrated that Frank would never say anything to make them believe in him or his football.

When Frank joined, he said the only guarantee was that Spurs would “lose games”. In one light, that was a welcome piece of honesty. But over time, it was seen as defeatist. The contrast with Postecoglou, who said that he always won a trophy in his second season and then delivered, was obvious. Even when results were turning against him, Frank never came out fighting like Postecoglou would have done. When he said, in his post-match press conference after January’s damaging West Ham defeat, that he was turning the “super-tanker” in the right direction, most fans just got annoyed at him. The moment at Bournemouth when Frank was photographed drinking from an Arsenal-branded coffee cup was the most emblematic of them all. Such a small issue, yet also so telling about a manager who kept getting the optics wrong.

But for all the questions about Frank’s management style — whether he was too nice, too thoughtful, whether he had the charisma or the ‘aura’ to manage Spurs — in the end, it all comes down to the football. Tottenham, during his brief tenure, simply did not look like a good team. They never played with any style or creativity. They barely created anything from open play. They recorded low xG numbers, and then did so again and again. There was never any sense of where the football was leading. You could not see an obvious endpoint, a light at the end of the tunnel. Just more set pieces, and more of Porro chipping the ball down the line to Kudus.

Ever since Frank’s appointment, fans were wondering whether this was just a replay of the Nuno interregnum, that short spell at the start of the 2021-22 season. Nuno faced some of the same questions: whether he could scale up from a promoted side to a big one, whether he could coach a style of play suitable to Spurs’ players, stadium and expectations. But when Levy sacked Nuno, they still had Kane and Son, with Conte waiting to take over. There are no equivalent quick fixes from here nor fast routes back to the top.

Frank was Levy’s last big appointment at Tottenham, and his dismissal is the first big test of the post-Levy era. It was clear for some time that the hierarchy did not want to sack him, and he lost the fans and the players long before he finally lost the people running the club. The focus all season had been on patience, giving time for his cultural changes to take root.

The hope was that, if backed, he could transform the whole club. But instead, Frank was corroded by toxicity and negativity faster and more painfully than most of his predecessors. After last night, CEO Vinai Venkatesham had finally seen and heard enough, and made his recommendation to the board to make a change. And now that Frank is gone, the Tottenham hierarchy must answer what exactly they want to do with this football club.

Additional reporting: James Horncastle, Seb Stafford-Bloor

Tottenham Hotspur’s decision to sack their manager after a hugely disappointing 38-game tenure is obviously bad news for Thomas Frank. But, to use a literary device curiously common in football punditry, it’s even worse news for ‘Your Thomas Franks’.

After all, Frank will surely get another decent job on the back of his impressive performance with Brentford. You can imagine him popping up at a mid-sized Bundesliga club, for example.

But Frank was the latest test case for Premier League managers who have overachieved with underdogs through straightforward football, and put themselves in the frame for a ‘big job’.

The viability of a manager successfully making the step up has become a common theme in modern football, particularly now there’s a bigger gap (in budget and expectations) between the top and bottom in the English top flight. There’s also an overwhelming emphasis on a certain style of football that falls in the middle of a Venn diagram roughly incorporating ‘entertaining’, ‘attacking’, and ‘possession’.

You can’t entirely separate that from bad results. Frank hasn’t been sacked because his football was boring; he’s been sacked because he collected 29 points from 26 league matches, because Tottenham are bottom of the six-game form guide (two draws and four defeats), and because they are being dragged into a scrap to avoid relegation. There are some legitimate excuses for Frank, particularly injuries, but he simply appeared to be unsuited to the demands of managing a big club.

Under Frank, Tottenham constantly looked too passive, particularly in the home defeats against Chelsea and Bournemouth. They were bad at building up from the back, most obviously for an early concession away at Leeds. Often, they didn’t have anywhere near enough creativity in the side, most obviously in a terribly limp display at Arsenal. On Tuesday night, Newcastle United overwhelmed Spurs, who struggled to get out of their own half for long periods.

Frank was, more or less, playing Brentford football with Tottenham.

Which brings us back to the question: can a manager change his identity? On recent evidence, no. The Frank era was a stark contrast from Mauricio Pochettino’s spell at Tottenham, even though Pochettino, like Frank, came from a Premier League newcomer (he took over midway through Southampton’s first season up after promotion). But Pochettino was always focused on playing ‘big club’ football. His Southampton became renowned as the league’s most aggressive pressing side. Results were good. But the style, as much as the success, attracted Spurs.

This is vaguely quantifiable. Here’s a slightly unusual graph. It features managers who have taken on ‘big jobs’ (which we’ve defined as clubs who have been in the league for 15-plus seasons — Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur) having made the step up from another Premier League side. Along the bottom is the average possession share they recorded in their final season at their old club, a rough measure of style. And up the y-axis is how many matches they lasted at their new club, a rough measure of success.

There is a rough pattern here. Pochettino was the manager most focused on possession at his previous club, and he enjoyed a hugely positive stint at Tottenham, turning them into Champions League finalists and Premier League title contenders. Things ended badly for Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez at Liverpool and Everton, but their initial progress was good. Rodgers’ Liverpool briefly seemed nailed-on to win the Premier League in 2013-14 when they had started as the fifth-favourites, and Martinez took Everton to their highest points tally in the Premier League era.

On the other hand, managers who were accustomed to low possession figures didn’t last long at all.

OK, there are a couple of outliers. Graham Potter was moving to Chelsea, a club traditionally less interested in ‘good football’ than other big clubs. He was therefore a bad fit for the opposite reasons to others.

The other outlier is Sean Dyche at Everton, the fourth-longest spell on this graph. But Everton, during that period, were little more than relegation scrappers, thanks to two significant points deductions in Dyche’s two seasons at the club. Early on, Dyche stated his intention “to play beautiful football if I can, but I want to play winning football first”. Fair enough. He kept them up twice. But at no point did beautiful football enter the equation, and even David Moyes’ relatively basic approach has been a significant upgrade in that respect.

Almost everyone else, more or less, has failed to change their identity. Of course, Managers don’t go into these bigger jobs blind. They know there are higher expectations, that they must adapt their style of play. But they seem to struggle in a multitude of ways.

Roy Hodgson at Liverpool was a classic case. “It is insulting to suggest that because you move to a new club, your methods suddenly don’t work when they’ve held you in good stead for 35 years,” he said at one point. “It’s unbelievable. My methods have translated from Halmstad to Malmo to Orebro to Neuchatel Xamax to the Swiss national team.” And while “Neuchatel Xamax” is a great name to throw in to underline your globetrotting background, namedropping the three-time Swiss champions didn’t convince Liverpool supporters that he understood the task.

“The fact that it hasn’t gone as well as I’d have hoped results-wise is just the nature of football,” Hodgson said later on. “I haven’t worked any differently here than I did in the last six months at Fulham.” That, of course, was partly the problem.

Moyes faced a similar problem when tasked with replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. The story about him coaching Rio Ferdinand by showing him videos of Phil Jagielka’s defending is perhaps overplayed — Moyes was surely making a specific tactical point — but the former Everton manager seemed overwhelmed by the task. His Everton side went into games against big teams primarily to stop the opposition. That wasn’t enough at United.

Another interesting case doesn’t feature on the above graph, as he was taking an international job. But Sam Allardyce’s single game in charge of England was telling. This was a man who unashamedly played long ball football, but also once claimed, albeit light-heartedly, that “I’m not suited to Bolton or Blackburn, I would be more suited to Inter Milan or Real Madrid… it’s not where I’m suited to, it’s just where I’ve been for most of the time”.

England was his chance to prove that. But in England’s 1-0 win in Slovakia, his captain, Wayne Rooney, ignored Allardyce’s tactics and did his own thing. “Wayne played wherever he wanted,” Allardyce said in his post-match interview with ITV. “He was brilliant and controlled midfield. I can’t stop Wayne playing there.” This was an odd comment. So he was asked about it further in the press conference.

“He holds a lot more experience at international football than I do as an international manager,” Allardyce said. “So, when he is using his experience and playing as a team member, it’s not for me to say where he’s going to play. We’d like to get him into goalscoring positions more. I must admit, he did play a little deeper than I thought he’d play.”

And this was a perfect example of the other side of management at big clubs: dealing with star players. Even Allardyce, the boldest and brashest manager in the game, who had worked with top-class players before, felt unable to instruct Rooney. Equally, it sounded like Rooney simply didn’t feel a manager of Allardyce’s calibre had the authority to boss him around. Often, big players just ‘aren’t having’ these managers.

There are some unusual cases on the list. Roberto Di Matteo, who had a promising spell as manager at West Bromwich Albion but was actually handed the Chelsea job as an interim after being the club’s assistant, won the Champions League with an ultra-defensive style of football but was seemingly not the man to create a more long-term, attack-minded approach the following season, and was sacked at almost the first possible opportunity.

It’s almost impossible to find a recent example of a manager transforming his style, going from success with ‘underdog football’ to success with ‘big club football’. Vincent Kompany’s strange journey from relegating Burnley with a comical commitment to possession football to performing excellently with Bayern Munich supports the idea that stylistic concerns are vital when it comes to big clubs appointing a new manager.

Frank remains a respected manager who was hugely popular during his spell with Brentford. And for those of us without a vested interest in the particular club, it’s always interesting to see how these coaches — Allardyce, Dyche, Frank — will fare when stepping up to a bigger job. But, sadly, they constantly fail.

Big clubs perform best when they appoint a coach with a track record of playing ‘the right style’ of football within the Premier League, with a foreign club, or even — being charitable to Enzo Maresca’s performance with Chelsea, as he did win two trophies — in the Championship.

The most damning thing about Frank’s experience is that this is the season when the Premier League has gone ‘old-school’, and his approach still seemed too basic for Tottenham.

The next case study could be Oliver Glasner. His performance at Crystal Palace has been exceptional, and in highlights form, Palace play very entertaining football. But last season and this season, his side has averaged the fourth-lowest possession share in the league, and have the lowest pass completion rate.

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Thomas Frank claimed he had “close to the perfect football life” during his time with Brentford. He spent nearly seven years in charge of the west London club and, apart from Pep Guardiola, no manager in the Premier League could come close to matching his job security.

None of that has proven to be true at Tottenham Hotspur. He has been sacked by the north London club after eight months in charge following a run of just two league wins in 17 Premier League matches against a backdrop of growing discontent from supporters.

The Dane joined Brentford in December 2016 as an assistant before being promoted to head coach two years later. He led them to the Premier League in 2021 and they did not spend a single day in the relegation zone across four seasons under Frank. There were two top-half finishes and memorable victories over Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea.

He had a fantastic relationship with owner Matthew Benham, director of football Phil Giles, the squad, staff, and fans. In May 2024, he held conversations with Manchester United and Chelsea about becoming their head coach. During an interview with The Athletic in the same month, Frank said: “I’m aware the grass is not greener in the garden next door, even if it looks like it. Then you get in there, take a closer look, and see a lot of weeds in the grass.”

Frank sacrificed his “perfect football life” in June when he replaced Ange Postecoglou as Spurs’ head coach. This was the opportunity the 52-year-old had been waiting and working for. He was taking over a squad with untapped potential who had won the club’s first major trophy since 2008, but a team that had underperformed with a 17th-place league finish.

The weeds were there for all to see, but with the right care and attention, Frank believed, Tottenham’s garden could blossom. His reign started positively but quickly unravelled and it was no surprise he was sacked after their defeat to Newcastle United.

Frank’s failure to bond with the Tottenham fanbase cost him. Postecoglou’s fast start in 2023, including dramatic victories at home over Sheffield United and Liverpool, helped the fans fall in love with him. It was an intoxicating sense of excitement and although this eventually faded, many supporters clung on to the belief those halcyon days could return. By way of contrast, Frank won twice in 13 Premier League home matches and rarely played the kind of football that set pulses racing.

Tottenham’s awful home form is an issue that predates Frank — they have won five league games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, stretching back to November 2024 — but he never came close to fixing it. They drew 1-1 with a Wolverhampton Wanderers side that took just one other point from their first 13 matches. They lost at home for the third season in a row against bitter rivals Chelsea, with Frank’s side recording an expected goals (xG) of 0.1, the lowest total by any team in the top flight this season… until Tottenham’s 4-1 defeat at Arsenal three weeks later.

A win over Manchester United after two late goals should have been the moment that united Frank and the fans, but a lapse of concentration from a corner allowed Matthijs de Ligt to equalise in the 96th minute.

Frank’s fragile relationship with the crowd was not helped by a defeat to Fulham (previously winless on the road) in which his team were 2-0 down inside six minutes. Describing their treatment of Guglielmo Vicario, who was jeered after his mistake led to Harry Wilson’s decisive goal, as “unacceptable” and saying that “they can’t be true Tottenham fans” went down poorly.

That was nothing compared to the reaction after the defeat to West Ham United in January. But the most damaging episode was the supporters chanting “you’re getting sacked in the morning” and singing the name of their former head coach Mauricio Pochettino during the second half of their loss to Newcastle.

Frank’s biggest strength at Brentford turned out to be his fatal flaw with Spurs. He constantly tinkered with their formation and starting line-ups. It has been harder to implement tactical plans at Spurs because their time on the training ground is impacted by midweek Champions League games. But even when Spurs had an entire week to prepare for a game, as they did before the home defeat to West Ham, they usually still looked largely aimless and lost.

“It’s limited with what you can coach, how many meetings and how much individual time you can have with the players because it’s just pure recovery as well, but again, it’s just the way it is,” Frank said before the 2-2 draw away to Newcastle United in December. “We need to find a way. Every good team, they found out they have seven, eight, nine players to play when it’s the top matches, if that makes sense, and that is what we are searching for. We need to rotate to make sure we have enough intensity and freshness.”

Frank’s lack of European experience was flagged up during the interview process, which is why Spurs surrounded him with assistant coaches who had worked for teams competing in the Champions League and Europa League, including Fabian Otte, Liverpool’s goalkeeping coach in 2024-25, and former Arsenal and Manchester United set-piece specialist Andreas Georgson. They have reached the last 16 of the Champions League but have performed woefully domestically.

Before he was appointed, Frank enquired about Spurs’ injury problems last season. They had fewer soft-tissue muscle problems in the early months of the season but they have increased rapidly in recent weeks. They had 10 senior players unavailable against Newcastle due to injury and the suspended Cristian Romero. They have also been without Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison all season. The pair did not play a competitive minute under Frank due to long-term knee injuries.

Club-record signing Dominic Solanke has been restricted to seven league appearances due to a persistent ankle issue, returning for the FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa. With Son Heung-min leaving in the summer to join Los Angeles FC, Frank was unable to call on a quartet of players who scored 49 goals for Spurs last season.

Senior figures at Spurs made a series of poor decisions that did not help. The uncertainty over whether they would be competing in the Champions League this season or have no European football at all impacted their ability to act swiftly in the summer transfer market. Taking two weeks before deciding to sack Postecoglou only truncated this.

Frank wanted to sign Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford but, by the time he had been appointed in mid-June, Mbeumo had decided he wanted to join Manchester United.

Spurs explored a move for Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, but baulked at the £70million ($92m) asking price and switched their attention to Mohammed Kudus of West Ham. Kudus has impressed, at times, but is now injured too. When Spurs returned for Semenyo in January, he decided to join Manchester City.

It is not Frank’s fault that Morgan Gibbs-White, who had wanted to join Spurs, performed a U-turn and signed an improved contract with Nottingham Forest.

The club mishandled negotiations with Crystal Palace’s chairman, Steve Parish, over Eberechi Eze. Eze was keen to rejoin his boyhood club Arsenal, but they did not ramp up their interest until Kai Havertz suffered a knee injury in August. Spurs wasted their opportunity.

Spurs signed Xavi Simons, but he was always going to take time to adapt to the Premier League. Tottenham’s squad is filled with talented, young players, but they need proven quality and experience around them. Although they added Conor Gallagher to the mix in January, many fans believed they needed more.

Just like Postecoglou, losing to Chelsea at home was the moment things started to unravel for Frank. In stoppage time, Vicario played a short free kick to Djed Spence instead of launching the ball into the box in search of an equaliser, which prompted the crowd to boo. At full time, Spence and Micky van de Ven ignored Frank’s plea for them to applaud the supporters and walked straight down the tunnel. Spurs should have been galvanised by winning the Europa League, but that defeat exposed the disconnect between the head coach, players and fans. Frank’s reputation never recovered, and Spurs never regained momentum.

Frank had other, unexpected hurdles to navigate, including the abrupt departure of Daniel Levy in September after 24 years as executive chairman. Fabio Paratici returned as co-sporting director with Johan Lange in October. In the middle of January, Spurs announced Paratici would be leaving for Fiorentina. Chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham has spoken openly about the challenges ahead. Spurs have undergone a huge amount of change at senior level over the past six months and the lack of stability has not helped.

After the defeat to West Ham, Frank said Spurs were a “super tanker turning in the right direction” and that “there are a lot of good things behind the scenes.” After the Newcastle defeat, Frank said he was “convinced” he would be in charge for the next game against Arsenal on February 22 and he was “1000 per cent sure” he was still the right person to be in charge. Senior figures at the club clearly disagreed.

For both Tottenham Hotspur and Thomas Frank, the grass was not greener.

Tottenham Hotspur have sacked head coach Thomas Frank.

Spurs are working through a few contingency plans as they look to replace Frank, who leaves the club 16th in the Premier League. Tottenham have won none of their last eight league games and just two from their last 17. They are five points above the relegation zone.

Frank’s last league match in charge was Tuesday’s 2-1 home defeat by Newcastle United. Under the Dane, Spurs finished fourth in the Champions League league phase, as they advanced to the last-16 stage.

Frank joined Tottenham in June, signing a three-year contract to replace the sacked Ange Postecoglou.

Spurs had struggled under Postecoglou last season, recording their worst Premier League campaign as they finished 17th on 38 points, having lost 22 of their 38 games. They did, though, qualify for the Champions League after winning the Europa League — their first trophy since 2008.

The arrival of Frank, however, only led to a small upturn in form, with Spurs winning only six of their opening 16 league games. They suffered successive top-flight defeats in November, losing 4-1 to rivals Arsenal and 2-1 to Fulham, finding themselves 2-0 down inside six minutes against the latter.

Spurs began 2026 with draws against Brentford and Sunderland before losing to Bournemouth, getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa and a defeat against West Ham United. Frank was jeered by supporters after each result.

Frank’s side rallied to secure successive 2-2 draws against Burnley and Manchester City in the Premier League either side of Champions League victories, but a two-goal loss at Manchester United and defeat to Newcastle continued their winless run.

Tottenham brought in four summer signings before the 2025-26 campaign, with Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus joining for a combined £114.1million ($149m), while Joao Palhinha and Randal Kolo Muani arrived on loan. On the eve of the season, James Maddison suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in his right knee, while fellow attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski has not played yet this term due to a knee issue.

In the winter transfer window, Spurs signed midfielder Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid and left-back Souza from Santos.

Frank previously spent seven years as Brentford head coach, guiding them to promotion for the first time in their history and four consecutive Premier League seasons without relegation.

Frank’s exit comes after Brentford’s accounts showed the west London club received £6.7million in compensation from Spurs for his move last June.

The sum spans the cost of Spurs hiring not only Frank but also Justin Cochrane, Chris Haslam and Joe Newton, all of whom joined the Danish head coach in last summer’s cross-London move.

Frank’s Spurs quickly unravelled

Analysis by Elias Burke

After a bright start against Paris Saint-Germain in the Super Cup and early back-to-back Premier League wins against Burnley and Manchester City to begin the season, the Frank era collapsed disastrously.

Tottenham have collected just 12 points from 17 league matches since November, and are yet to win a game in 2026.

Long-term injuries to James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, alongside persistent shorter-term injuries, have meant Frank has never had anywhere near a full-strength squad to work with.

Poor performances and results in the Premier League meant the controlling Lewis family seemingly had no other choice but to part ways with the Dane, who has left Tottenham in a genuine relegation battle with 12 games remaining.

If there is one positive from the Frank era, it is the side’s performances in the Champions League.

Spurs finished fourth in the league phase — higher than Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and defending champions PSG — which has secured their place directly in the last 16.

Whether Tottenham look to appoint a permanent manager post-Frank, or instead look for an interim until the end of the season, when Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Tuchel or Julian Nagelsmann may be available after the World Cup, the coach who directly replaces Frank will have the opportunity to compete in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

The last time Thomas Frank was booed off like this at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, he compared this team to a “super-tanker” that he was turning “in the right direction”. But every Spurs fan can see the truth in front of them: this ship is taking on water fast and is starting to sink.

There are only 12 Premier League games left this season. Tottenham are only five points above the relegation zone. They have won just two of their past 17 league games. They have not won a league game in 2026. Their rivals all have more momentum than they do. Twenty-nine points from 26 games is a position from which teams have been relegated in the past: Sunderland in 1996-97, Wimbledon in 1999-2000 and Blackpool in 2010-11. Every single red warning light should be flashing now.

With the situation this grave, only one question matters: how do Tottenham stay in the Premier League? It is not a question Spurs have had to consider for a generation. But the whole football club must now think about nothing else.

On a personal level this was another disaster for Frank. The first half was as awful as anything Spurs have served up this season: vulnerable at the back, clueless with the ball, lucky to go in only 1-0 down to Newcastle United. There was another second-half fightback, but not with enough quality or conviction to get anything. It ended as the seventh home league defeat of his tenure.

The fans — who had sung Mauricio Pochettino’s name, and “sacked in the morning” during the second half — booed at the final whistle, booed Frank onto the pitch and booed him back off again. Any sense that the relationship between the Dane and the fans had been repaired by the win in Frankfurt or the draw with Manchester City has been ripped apart again.

Frank insisted afterwards that the situation is bigger than just him. He spoke, more bluntly than ever before, about the damaging injury situation at the club. He explained that while it is “easy to point” at him, ultimately “it is never only the head coach or the ownership or the directors or the players or the staff; it’s everyone”.

In an academic sense he might be right. The story of how Tottenham got into this position is certainly more complicated than just Frank himself. As ever at Spurs, there is more than enough blame to go around. But the issue of relegation is also a profoundly bigger question than when exactly Frank gets sacked. Tottenham sack their manager almost every year. They have not been relegated since 1977. The historical scale is not the same.

Many of these questions are settled already. The jury is no longer out on whether Frank has done well at Spurs, whether he enjoys the support of the fans, or whether he should be in charge next season. All of those questions now feel resolved in the negative. But what really matters from here is what Spurs do between now and the end of May, and how they give themselves the best possible chance of staying up. Ange Postecoglou got sacked for finishing 17th but that looks like an outcome the club would happily take now.

The question is whether the severity of the situation forces a rethink. It has felt for a while that Spurs’ patience with Frank pointed at least in part to their desire not to finish the season with a caretaker. Every club wants a smooth transfer from one permanent manager to the next. Spurs finished 2020-21 with Ryan Mason, and then 2022-23 with Cristian Stellini and then Mason again. But those caretaker spells were ultimately palate cleansers, a welcome chance to reset the mood after first Jose Mourinho and then Antonio Conte had toxified the club.

This situation is different. Spurs do not merely need someone to come in and lift everyone’s spirits. They need someone to win some games. They need someone who can find a way to bail out the water and get the ship afloat again. They do not need to be perfect in the run-in. They do not need 20 or even 15 points. But they need to be much better than this.

For months now the club has effectively bet that Frank — with his famed tactical pragmatism, his focus on clean sheets and set pieces — would at least be the man to guide them to safety. Who better for a battle than the man who repeatedly secured Brentford’s Premier League status? Part of the logic of Frank’s appointment was that even if his teams might not have the ceiling of Postecoglou’s side, his meticulous and realistic approach would mean a higher floor.

That argument has been demolished by the events of this season. Of course Spurs do not play dazzling possession football, but that was never part of the sell anyway. More to the point, this team is not efficient, not effective, not pragmatic, not solid, not flexible, and certainly not hard to beat. In short, it has none of the qualities Frank was meant to instil. And after two-thirds of a season in charge, that is enough time for people to make up their minds.

When Frank spoke afterwards, he insisted there were “a lot of studies” explaining how sacking the manager was not always the fix. And he is right that not every emergency fire-fighter appointment successfully puts out the flames. But at the same time, clubs know that once the January transfer window has shut, the only option left on the table is to change the manager. And the closer you get to the precipice, the more compelling, the more inevitable it is to pull the only lever available to you.

Of course there is a huge unsolved question hanging over all of this, which is simply: then what? There are no obvious out-of-work managers to come in and take over. Nor is there an obvious internal candidate. John Heitinga, who only arrived to join Frank’s staff last month, is as plausible as it gets.

For so long, it felt as if removing Frank was a risk. Because whatever weaknesses he might have, however unconvincing he might be, he was still a safe pair of hands on the steering wheel. He offered a visible route through the choppy waters, away from the relegation disaster.

But there was an eerie sense of fear about the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday, a new level of nerves. As if the crowd all looked down in unison and saw that the water was coming up to their shins. If you think your ship is going down, why would you not want to change the man at the helm? Time is running out and survival is at stake.

Spurs have slipped closer to the Premier League’s relegation zone after another home defeat, 2-1 to Newcastle United, at a wet and miserable Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Eddie Howe’s side began brightly, frequently getting in behind the Tottenham defence on the right flank. Such was their territorial dominance that they won nine corners before the break, the most by any Premier League side in a first half this season.

Spurs’ recent injury problems worsened after half an hour when Wilson Odobert went down after a midfield challenge and had to be replaced by Mathys Tel. And just as it looked like the home side had survived another poor first half — after a Joe Willock goal was ruled offside by the narrowest of margins — Newcastle deservedly took the lead just before the half-time whistle, Malick Thiaw reacting quickest after his initial header had been saved by Guglielmo Vicario.

There was no immediate response after the break from Spurs either, but they did slowly grow into the second half and equalised via Archie Gray just after the hour mark. But parity was enjoyed for just a few minutes, Jacob Ramsey’s well-taken goal — his first for Newcastle — put the visitors back into the lead, one which they held fairly comfortably for the remainder of the game.

Jay Harris, Chris Waugh and Mark Carey analyse the key moments from the game.

What does this defeat mean for Thomas Frank?

Newcastle have underperformed this season, but they are still a difficult team to beat. It is the limp and uninspiring performance that should be the biggest cause of concern for Spurs.

In the opening 10 minutes, they created a couple of decent chances down the right wing by releasing Odobert and Conor Gallagher into the space behind Dan Burn.

Spurs failed to grasp those opportunities, though, and for the rest of the first half, they struggled to progress the ball in central areas. Newcastle trapped them and it was no surprise they took the lead through Thiaw. Spurs had been warned when Willock netted shortly before, but was ruled offside.

Spurs were poor at the beginning of the second half until the game opened up and became chaotic. They threatened on the counter but took the lead through Gray’s volley after a Xavi Simons corner. It has been a regular theme of this season that Spurs perform well in the second half. The games become transitional, and that comes with a lot of risk. Ramsey’s winner came from Gallagher losing the ball when Spurs were on the attack.

It is another damaging defeat for Thomas Frank and the divisions within the squad were on full display. Tel threw his hands up when Yves Bissouma passed the ball backwards to Radu Dragusin. Vicario went mad at his defence when Newcastle scored their second. Frank was a constant raging ball of energy on the touchline, screaming at every decision that went against his side. Pape Matar Sarr and Simons both being booked for simulation was another sign of the desperation within the ranks. The supporters groaned when Vicario flapped at a corner.

The worst part for Frank was the reaction from the crowd. They booed at half-time and full time and chanted the name of their former manager, Mauricio Pochettino. Spurs have an extended break until they face Arsenal on February 22. If there is a time to pull the trigger and bring in a replacement or an interim head coach, it would surely be now.

Jay Harris

How significant is this win for Howe?

Using Howe’s own (pre-match) word: “Massive.”

Given Newcastle are labouring through a run of seven away fixtures in eight across all competitions, the relief at recording a victory after five winless outings (and three straight Premier League defeats) was palpable.

Crucially, Newcastle also recorded only their third top-flight victory on the road this season. In fact, it was only their third away win in 16 Premier League games, stretching back to April. Following back-to-back defeats on Tyneside against Aston Villa and Brentford, claiming the three points that lifted them back into the top 10 felt critical.

What’s more, Newcastle have dropped a Premier League-high 19 points when leading. Once Spurs equalised, it appeared as if that unwanted record was going to be extended. To have shipped more points against a team as bad as Spurs, who have only won two home games all season, would have further dented confidence.

Instead, with Newcastle travelling roughly 9,300 cumulative miles during this brutal stretch of away fixtures — this was the fourth of those seven on the road — both Howe and the team required this fillip before going to Villa in the FA Cup on Saturday.

The travelling fans chanted “Eddie Howe’s black-and-white army” and, at least for now, the external noise may quieten, even if internally there is no genuine pressure on the head coach.

Chris Waugh

Why were Spurs so bad?

Spurs have switched between a 3-4-3 system and 4-2-3-1 formation over the last few weeks. Due to their mounting injury crisis and Cristian Romero’s suspension, Dragusin and Micky van de Ven started together at centre-back for the first time since September 2024.

They frequently recycled the ball before passing it to Sarr or Bissouma. The duo seemed incapable of playing progressive passes and finding Dominic Solanke or Simons in dangerous positions.

Djed Spence returned to the starting XI after missing two games with a calf injury and struggled. The England international had to cope with the dual threat of Anthony Elanga and Kieran Trippier. It is no surprise Newcastle’s opening goal came from a move down the right. Willock was afforded far too much space and time to swing a cross into the box.

This is the problem with Spurs. No matter what combination Frank tries, nothing seems to work. The only player who emerged with any real credit is Gray. He has performed impressively at right-back over the past couple of weeks while coming up against Bryan Mbeumo and Harvey Barnes. He drove Spurs forward at times and combined well with Gallagher, but they needed more help.

The most damning thing you can level at Spurs is that there does not appear to be any patterns to work the ball into a good area. Attacking fluency is good, but the movement of each player feels too ad hoc for their team-mates to know what action is coming next. When you have such unpredictability, it is difficult to build a coherent foothold in the game.

Jay Harris & Mark Carey

Why Newcastle utilising the right flank made sense

Sometimes it can be tricky to work out what a manager’s tactical instructions might be when their team takes to the field.

But within minutes of kick-off, it was crystal clear where Howe had asked his Newcastle players to target. Spence deputised at left-back for Tottenham once again, and winger Elanga was keen to ensure he had a difficult evening upon his return — making persistent runs on the right flank and having plenty of success with the support of the overlapping Trippier.

Newcastle had 46 per cent of their attacking touches down the right third of the pitch in the first half, which was the fourth-highest share in an opening 45 minutes for Howe’s side this season. With Simons failing to provide the requisite defensive cover for Spence, Newcastle continually had an overload on that side of the pitch in the first half — and it was little surprise that their opening goal came from the right flank.

After Bruno Guimaraes underlapped Elanga to get to the byline, the ball was eventually worked back to Willock, whose cross was eventually bundled in by Thiaw. With 13 open-play crosses being the joint-most that Newcastle have had in a first half, you could not say that the opening goal was not coming.

Mark Carey

Has Ramsey finally arrived as a Newcastle player?

At the 27th attempt, Ramsey finally has a goal involvement for Newcastle.

The 24-year-old joined from Aston Villa for £39million ($53.2m) in August, and he, like Elanga, has been criticised for failing to make an immediate impact. They were supposed to be ‘Premier League-ready’ additions, yet both have had their individual travails since moving to Tyneside.

Ramsey was hampered by an early ankle injury, which stunted his progress and integration into the team, but in recent weeks, the midfielder has visibly grown in confidence and influence. He is composed on the ball, wins possession well, and usually makes good decisions.

With the out-of-form Sandro Tonali omitted for only the second time in the last 15 matches, Ramsey and Willock provided energy and industry in midfield, with Guimaraes deployed as the No 6.

It was Ramsey’s precise and perfectly executed early ball through to Willock, which almost opened the scoring for Newcastle, but he was denied an assist by the narrowest of offside calls.

The summer signing was then influential during the build-up to his winner, playing it inside to Barnes, who laid the ball off to Gordon. Ramsey darted in from the left wing and into the area, where he finished brilliantly first time across Vicario.

Insiders have always been confident that Ramsey would prove to be an excellent signing for Newcastle. Belatedly, he is justifying that conviction.

Chris Waugh

What did Frank say?

“I understand the fans’ frustration,” Frank said in his post-match press conference when asked about the “sacked in the morning” chants. “We are in a position we don’t want to be in and we are working very hard day and night to change.

“I also think it is a situation now the club has been in, it’s fair to say, for almost two years and at the end of last season as well clearly a pattern that we struggle to manage Europe and the Premier League. It’s something me, the team, the club, the players we need to learn to do even better physically and mentally to deal with that.

“And part of that of course is the 11 injuries or 10 plus a suspension plus another one today which of course doesn’t help in a situation like that.”

Asked if he will be in charge for the Arsenal game, Frank added: “Yeah, I’m convinced I will be.”

Pushed whether he is convinced he is the right man for the job, he continued: “1,000 per cent sure. I am also 1,000 per cent sure that I never expected us to be in a situation like this with 11 or 12 injuries on the back end of this and what we’ve been facing, but I know when you need to build something and need to get through things, you need to show unbelievable strong resilience.

“I understand the mechanism in football, no doubt about that, but there are a lot of studies that it is not the right thing to do.

“We of course understand we’re not in a good situation, but with everything in life you need to stay calm, keep doing it and keep going.”

And on Odobert’s injury, he added: “I hope it’s nothing too serious, but I don’t know what it can be.”

What did Howe say?

Speaking to TNT Sport after the game, the Newcastle boss was delighted. “It was a good performance from us. Really strange game because I didn’t think we deserved to be level when we were. Tottenham scored against the run of play and then really big credit to the lads because the game could have gone away from us. But we responded really well and scored the second goal and thankfully defended the last few minutes really well.

“We’ve played really well. We’ve had a number of shots, a number of chances throughout the first half. We hadn’t scored but we dominated. Joe Willock’s offside goal is really harsh. The lads have had to do it the hard way and full credit to the mentality of the group, the feeling, because we’ve had it tough in recent weeks. That game could have got away from us but we didn’t allow it to and I felt we fully deserved to win.”

Howe was pleased with the impact of two summer signings during the game. “I was delighted for Malick, he’s played really well for us. He’s been an ever-present. He’s been really strong in his performances and scored some really important goals for us. That was a massive one because he showed the desire to get to the ball first and a cool finish. He’s been outstanding, JJ (Ramsey) has played really well in recent weeks and Elanga played really well.

So I always say with the transfer market you have to be patient, wait and see how the players settle in and show their best form. I felt it was a promising night in that respect.”

What next for Spurs?

Sunday, February 22: Arsenal (Home), Premier League, 4.30pm UK, 11.30am ET

What next for Newcastle?

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank is “convinced” he will still be in charge for their next Premier League game against Arsenal on February 22.

Spurs suffered their 11th defeat of the season on Tuesday when they lost 2-1 at home to Newcastle United. Frank’s side have reached the last 16 of the Champions League but have failed to win a top-flight game since they beat Crystal Palace on December 28 and are now only five points above West Ham United who occupy the final relegation spot.

Spurs supporters booed at half-time and full-time against Newcastle while they also chanted “you’re getting sacked in the morning.” In the second half when Newcastle were leading 1-0, they sang the name of their former head coach Mauricio Pochettino who led them to the Champions League final in May 2019.

Spurs have an extended break before they host their north London rivals Arsenal. Frank was asked if he would still be in charge for the visit of the league leaders in 11 days.

“Yeah, I’m convinced I will be,” Frank said. “I understand the question and I understand it’s easy to point on me but I also think it’s never only the head coach or the ownership or the directors or the players or the staff. It’s everyone.

“If you do something right, you build something that can last. Of course we are not in a top position now. Everyone knows, directors, ownership, myself, what position we are in, what we need to improve and what we need to do better. That is what we are working very hard on.”

Frank spent nearly seven years in charge of Brentford before he replaced Ange Postecoglou at Spurs last June and signed a three-year contract. The 52-year-old was asked after the defeat to Newcastle if he was still convinced he was the right person to manage Spurs.

“1,000 per cent sure,” he said. “I’m also 1,000 per cent sure that I never expected us to be in a situation like this with 11/12 injuries on the back end of this and what we have been facing. But I know when you need to build something and you need to get through things you need to show unbelievable strong resilience.

“It’s fair to say a few before me up here, not only for Tottenham but other clubs, have lost their head many times. I think you need to have a calm head, carry on, keep fighting. Keep doing the right thing, make sure we stick together because you can only get through this together and that is the board, that is the leaders, that is the staff, that is me, that is the fans, we will only get through this together.”

Spurs’ lengthy injury list includes first-choice full-backs Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski. Wilson Odobert is the latest name to be added to that list after he landed awkwardly on his left foot in the first half against Newcastle.

Six Premier League managers have already fallen with just over a third of the 2025-26 season remaining. Results this week could well shape how many more go before the campaign ends in May.

Newcastle, for example, are winless in five after Saturday’s chaotic home defeat to Brentford, leaving them 12th, and closer to the relegation zone than the top four. Tottenham are yet to win a league game in 2026 despite encouraging European form.

Both Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe and his Spurs counterpart Thomas Frank have risen to their current posts by merit, leading clubs into the Premier League for the first time in their respective histories, over-performing on smaller budgets and reduced expectations, before making the step up to Champions League teams. In the case of Howe — the fourth-longest serving manager in the English top flight, who ended a 56-year trophy drought last season — he turned Newcastle into a Champions League side for the first time since 2003 when he secured qualification two seasons ago.

Tonight (Tuesday), the two teams face each other at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a game that feels freighted with significance. At the weekend, Howe said he was “not doing my job well enough” and that this evening’s game was “massive”; Frank, similarly, has admitted Spurs are “desperate” for wins.

Just what is going wrong at both clubs, and where can this critical fixture be won and lost? The Athletic drills into the data to find out.

Wayward finishing and the search for creative spark

On paper, this is a clash between two of the most evenly-matched sides in the division; both have scored 35 Premier League goals this season, while Newcastle have conceded only one more than Tottenham with 36.

Digging into the underlying numbers, however, suggests that today’s visitors have generated enough goalscoring opportunities to expect to outscore the north Londoners by 12 goals, with only Arsenal and Manchester City allowing fewer expected goals (xG).

As we can see from the visualisation below, Newcastle have been the fifth-strongest team in the top flight according to their expected goal difference, a metric that is a solid indicator of team performance. Yet, through a combination of poor finishing and clinical opposition counters, they have been dragged down the table to lie closer to teams both much weaker in attack and leakier in defence than they are.

Howe has pointed to his team’s statistical underperformance throughout the season, watching on as his boys miss big chances at key moments in games and throw away leads, having already dropped 19 points from winning positions after 25 of the 38 games. Their second-half display in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Manchester City last week, in which they spurned two huge chances via Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa, was a source of particular frustration.

Newcastle have cycled through different options at centre-forward in an attempt to remedy the situation. Summer signing Nick Woltemade has faded following his fast start, the Bundesliga import struggling to cope with the physicality of Premier League defenders and failing to get into the box often enough. Wissa has not looked sharp after an injury lay-off that delayed his Newcastle debut until December, while even Anthony Gordon has been trialled through the middle. Will Osula brings high-intensity running from the bench, but not consistency in front of goal.

It all means that Newcastle have been more reliant on set pieces, with six of their nine Premier League goals in 2026 arriving from dead-ball deliveries. Howe needs more production from his finishers on the break.

Spurs, on the other hand, simply aren’t creating enough to merit more than they’ve achieved in attack. No team have over-performed their expected goals figure by more, a charge led by goalscoring centre-backs Cristian Romero and Mickey van de Ven, who have popped up with towering headers and snap-shots from knockdowns and set pieces.

Season-long (so far) injuries to the squad’s most gifted technicians from open play, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison, have not helped. But there are well-documented issues with progressing the ball through midfield which have yet to be addressed, meaning that Frank’s side are similarly dependent on set pieces to get the ball close to the opposition goal.

Injuries… and lots of them

When it rains, it pours, and Frank has particular reason to curse his luck after a summer switch from Brentford.

Alongside his sidelined creators mentioned above, a January thigh injury to Mohammed Kudus cut off Spurs’ most reliable supply line up the pitch — a winger who is adept at receiving long passes with his back to goal and bringing others into play. The player responsible for almost half those searching forward passes to the Ghanaian, Pedro Porro, has also missed the past three games with a hamstring strain.

Kudus’ injury and the return of Destiny Udogie prompted a tweak to the system, as Spurs switched to a back three to allow their left-back to push on. There have been positive signs — width from those wing-backs has allowed both Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert the freedom to drift inside, a role that has particularly suited Simons. Dominic Solanke’s return up top has also helped the ball to stick, with more opportunities for those creative No 10s to pick up the ball in advanced areas.

As we can see from the passing network against Burnley last month, both Simons and Odobert were involved from inverted roles, while January signing Conor Gallagher is given freedom to make late runs beyond the last line with Yves Bissouma in a holding position.

Again, injuries have limited the effectiveness of the new shape. Porro was replaced momentarily by Djed Spence, who has since been covered for by Archie Gray, a midfielder who is not so natural when it comes to bombing down the line and whipping in crosses.

On the opposite flank, Frank confirmed that Udogie will be out for “four to five weeks”, leaving few options to play that left wing-back role. With Romero also suspended after his red card at Manchester United, there are even fewer options at centre-back, with midfielder Joao Palhinha already filling in there.

Frank may have to return to a back four for the visit of Newcastle.

Even when progress looks to be made, availability forces his hand.

Vulnerability to counter-attacks

No team have conceded more xG from Opta-defined fast breaks than Newcastle this season, and the weekend’s 3-2 defeat by visitors Brentford made those defensive deficiencies alarmingly clear.

Howe’s side are not afraid to commit players forward for quick attacks, but there is a lack of organisation and the ability to recover, particularly when Sandro Tonali ventures from his anchoring midfield role.

In the below sequence from that match, for example, Tonali takes over from Jacob Murphy and carries the ball into the box, but sees his cutback intercepted by Vitaly Janelt. In frame two, we see Murphy and Joe Willock left exposed, with four black-and-white shirts inside the penalty area as Brentford look to move forward with speed.

Igor Thiago provides the out-ball, bringing a long pass under control and spinning to find Michael Kayode, one of two Brentford players who have raced through midfield and left markers behind. Kayode eventually found Dango Ouattara, who pulled one back to Mathias Jensen, and he won a penalty that Thiago scored from to put Brentford 2-1 up.

The second half presented another example, after Howe replaced midfielder Willock with winger Elanga in an attacking half-time switch.

Once again, Tonali is out wide with Elanga on the overlap, but the Italian’s pass towards Wissa is intercepted.

Only Bruno Guimaraes has stayed back in midfield, and the Brazilian is on hand as the ball pops out to Jensen. However, winger Harvey Barnes is not alert to the lay-off, allowing Janelt to receive it and then drive away, leaving six Newcastle players in his wake.

The irony is that Frank’s preferred play-style from his days at Brentford — hitting hard and fast on the break and isolating his centre-forwards against defenders with long passes — would hurt this Newcastle side in their current state.

At Spurs, however, particularly at home, the manager has struggled to balance the demand for attractive, possession-heavy football with incisive attacking play, leading to a situation in which his team are usually less effective when playing in front of his own fans.

It presents a fascinating, must-win contest for both sides, with gaping weaknesses on either team there to be exploited.