Tottenham Hotspur have parted ways with Thomas Frank on Wednesday morning. Due to the continued disappointing performances, the Danish manager had come under heavy pressure. The club’s leadership have now stepped in.
Tottenham have reached a breaking point in a season that has steadily drifted from frustration into full scale crisis.
The defeat to Newcastle United on Tuesday, a 1-2 loss in front of their own supporters, became the latest in a sequence of results that has left the club without a single league victory in the new year. Across 8 straight Premier League fixtures, Spurs have failed to win, and the last time they collected 3 points in the competition was 28 December. In isolation, any one setback might have been survivable, but the accumulation has been punishing: confidence has drained, the atmosphere around the team has turned tense, and every match has carried the feeling of a referendum on the manager.
The Newcastle game captured many of the problems that have defined the run. Tottenham again struggled to manage key moments, allowing the match to tilt away from them through lapses in concentration and a lack of ruthlessness in both boxes. Even when Spurs created pressure spells, the performance lacked the clear structure and conviction needed to turn dominance into goals, and once they fell behind, the response looked more like anxiety than controlled urgency. Supporters have seen similar patterns repeatedly in recent weeks: promising passages that do not produce enough end product, followed by costly mistakes that undo any momentum.
The collapse in domestic form has also been aggravated by cup disappointment. Tottenham were knocked out of the FA Cup during the same period, removing one of the clearest remaining routes to silverware and turning what could have been a season of gradual progress into a season defined by damage limitation. For a club with expectations shaped by a major stadium, a global fanbase, and regular European ambitions, being dragged into a fight near the bottom half of the table has been unacceptable.
What makes the situation more confusing is that Tottenham have not been a universal failure across all competitions. In the Champions League league phase, they performed far better than their Premier League position would suggest. Finishing 4th and qualifying directly for the round of 16 gave the club a genuine achievement to point to, and it offered Frank a potential lifeline. European nights brought a different energy, with sharper focus and greater intensity, and Spurs often looked more comfortable when games became open and transitional. That contrast has only increased scrutiny, because it raised the question of why that level could not be reproduced week after week in the league.
Ultimately, the domestic results outweighed the European progress, and the club hierarchy decided that the trajectory was no longer defensible. Frank leaves with an average of 1.12 points per match in the Premier League, the lowest in Tottenham history among managers who coached more than 5 matches. That statistic matters because it quantifies what fans have felt: the team has not only been losing, it has been doing so at a rate that puts it among the poorest spells the club has experienced in modern times.
The league table position underlines the urgency. Tottenham are sitting 16th, a placing that would have been unthinkable for much of the past decade. Even if relegation danger is not immediate in a mathematical sense, the psychological impact of hovering near the bottom places is severe, and it creates a pressure cooker environment where every fixture becomes heavier. For a squad that includes players accustomed to competing for European places, that stress can become corrosive, affecting decision making, confidence, and the willingness to take responsibility in decisive moments.
The club did attempt to stabilise the situation before opting for the most drastic step. In January, Tottenham brought in John Heitinga as an extra assistant coach in an effort to strengthen the coaching staff and inject fresh ideas. The move signalled that the leadership recognised the slide and wanted to give Frank more support, whether in tactical detail, training intensity, or dressing room management. Heitinga returned to work after his dismissal at Ajax, and his arrival was interpreted by many as a practical intervention: a new voice to help with organisation and defensive structure, and perhaps an additional bridge between players and staff.
That intervention was not enough. Results did not turn, performances did not stabilise, and the pressure continued to build. Tottenham also avoided naming a successor in the dismissal statement, which suggests that the club either has not finalised its next appointment or is weighing whether an interim staff member will take charge while the search proceeds. In these situations, clubs often consider short term solutions that can steady the ship quickly, prioritising simplicity, defensive solidity, and a reset in mentality, before making a long term strategic choice.
Frank had been appointed at the start of the season as the successor to Ange Postecoglou, a decision that already carried risk because Postecoglou had delivered a Europa League title but was dismissed anyway. That context made the new appointment politically sensitive: the club were asking supporters to accept a new direction immediately after tangible success. Frank arrived with a reputation for building coherent teams, improving players, and delivering clear tactical identity, largely based on his work at Brentford, where he spent almost 7 years and earned widespread credit for smart recruitment integration, strong set piece planning, and a flexible approach to game management.
He also carried significant experience from Denmark, including work at Brondby IF and roles within the national youth setup. That background typically points to a coach comfortable with development, structured methodology, and long term planning. Tottenham, however, needed immediate league performance, and the Premier League is rarely patient when results fall apart in a high expectation environment.
The key question now is what Tottenham prioritise next. One route is to look for a stabiliser, a coach known for organisation and risk control, tasked with grinding out points and restoring baseline standards. Another route is to double down on a longer term rebuild, choosing a manager whose style aligns with recruitment and academy integration, and accepting that short term turbulence may be part of the process. The Champions League round of 16 adds further complexity, because European progression could still salvage prestige and revenue, while a continued league slump would intensify the crisis regardless of continental results.
For the squad, the dismissal can be both a shock and a relief. A managerial change often triggers a short term bounce, driven by renewed focus and an implicit reset of accountability. At the same time, it forces players to adapt again, and it can expose deeper issues if the problems are structural rather than purely managerial. Tottenham will need clearer leadership on the pitch, improved defensive concentration, more consistent chance creation, and better game management in tight moments. Without those, the identity changes, but the outcomes do not.
Frank exits at a moment when Tottenham are trying to reconcile competing realities: a club capable of finishing 4th in the Champions League league phase, yet unable to win a league match for weeks. The next appointment, whether interim or permanent, will be judged immediately on one thing above all else: stopping the slide, restoring confidence, and dragging Tottenham back to a level that matches their stature.
Updated: 11:47, 11 Feb 2026
