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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

It's amazing the world we live in. There are grown men, and women, of various ages, all stating categorically that things they have read in the media are facts.

"The board have met to discuss his future", "the players don't want him", etc.

The media have a job to do, and that is to write something you enjoy so you come back, that you read again. That you click on their "Claudia Winkleman clothing fail" exclusive. They do not have any obligation to tell the truth. Indeed a thread on here which documented the made up rubbish they write, especially the tabloids, albeit the broadsheets now have resorted to sensationalism too, would be a really good thing to enable us to gauge the accuracy of an outlet.

We have no evidence beyond the words of Romano, Ornstein and a few others that any of what has been written is true.

Now that is aside, there has to be within the players and coaching staff a belief that they can achieve improved results. This may come from better understanding between the respective groups, more luck, or the injection of new blood. Otherwise Thomas Frank would have lost his job yesterday. He also cannot be expected to function properly with "next game is your last" management. Any board who enforces that is failing.

I'm not happy at the moment, I want better football and better results, but I also don't want to go on the roller coaster again. We are in very little danger of relegation right now, and assuming that doesn't change, I won't back a change, unless Pep resigns from city and says he wants the job at Spurs.
 
I've read a million posts on this site, and a thousand Tweets, and nobody is talking about Charrington, Collecott, Turner and Hinson.

I think most of you have heard of Charrington and Collecott, but have never heard of Turner and Hinson.

Is this true... would this board have such a huge say in things, versus the Lewis kids, Vinai V and Lange Lange Lang?

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Edit - Lange Lange Lang is a reference to Dexy's Midnight Runners I think?
 
Bullet said:
I've read a million posts on this site, and a thousand Tweets, and nobody is talking about Charrington, Collecott, Turner and Hinson.

I think most of you have heard of Charrington and Collecott, but have never heard of Turner and Hinson.

Is this true... would this board have such a huge say in things, versus the Lewis kids, Vinai V and Lange Lange Lang?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.


Edit - Lange Lange Lang is a reference to Dexy's Midnight Runners I think?
Click to expand...

I will say I think one of the things that Levy got right towards the end of his time was sensing what we needed and making that appointment. My two examples of this are swerving from Ten Hag due to a lack of charisma and appointing Ange. This is not a post to say that Ange was the long term answer for us, but rather to say that our club in the summer of 2023 was a broken mess. It was disunited, and it needed a unifier, it needed a leader that could make everyone believe. And from a playing perspective after 4 years of attempting to play some form of reactive sufferball, it feels like the squad was crying out for an opportunity to be let off the leash.

I think losing Levy’s experience in this respect is actually potentially one of the damaging things. I have no idea who the board are getting their advice from. I don’t know if the board really know football, if they really know the inner workings of the club, if they have a sense for what the club needs and what the squad needs. I think they have a sense of what they think they need, but it’s not the same thing.

I’m also not sure Lange is a Monchi / Paratici type who a club can try and build around. Maybe technical director is his level rather than true Sporting Director. He seems really good with data and scouting. But again is he someone that is going to drive standards throughout the club. Is he going to lead a transformation, or does he need to be lead? I don’t know, but I’m just posing the question.

I say all of this to say that I’m not 100% confident this board will get it right on Frank’s replacement. I know Levy was around for the appointment in the first place, but it seemed clear he was trying to handover more of the football side. And I think people that know our club less, and know football less, have been entrusted to make bigger decisions. To go back to the Summer 2023 example, what were we crying out for? If your diagnosis of summer 2025 was that we desperately needed to sort the defence, that we needed more pragmatism, that the players were sick of being exposed, that the previous style caused the injuries, then you appoint someone like Frank.

Personally, I don’t think the squad was crying out for that style, and I think in general, it was the wrong diagnosis and what has gotten us to this point is getting that diagnosis wrong and in the process whiplashing the squad when there was no need. It’s a diagnosis that makes sense in theory and on paper to corporate people who don’t really know football as much, but without a real sense of what makes a difference in the sport.

I hope they get the next move right. I wonder what they think they learned from Frank’s appointment. The noises suggest they feel he’s been dealt bad luck (and I do agree with that) but I also think there are a lot of things that could have been done differently.
 
And my point on whiplashing the squad when there is no need comes down to, if you put us in a huge transition style wise when the squad isn’t desperate for it, I think you suffer a crisis of confidence if things don’t immediately click or we get some bad luck. I don’t think the squad were crying out for Frank’s style, I can see an argument that maybe they wanted attacking with a little bit more restraint, but was it fully understood by the board what Frank was going to implement? I assume it was, but they then chose whiplash.

Equally, on the injuries. We’re now suffering massively. Maybe it’s not that Frank’s methods cause injuries. But maybe his method of lowering and raising intensity massively within games takes our squad’s bodies just as much getting used to as other systems? And so it’s not that the methods are inherently bad, it’s just that they are extremely different to what this squad had largely been prepared for previously. I think this is so interesting because Frank made a point of saying he would do better on the injury front, and make selection decisions to help with this. But he still hasn’t gotten the benefit. Why? Again I don’t believe Frank is bad, or his methods are bad, I think it’s just that he is too different from what came before, and it’s another form of whiplash.

I think if Frank took over from David Moyes, he’d be doing pretty darn well. Maybe we’ll see it proved out soon if he takes over from Glasner. And I think if Marco Silva took over from Ange, we’d likely be doing better. I’m not saying I think Marco Silva would lead us to PL glory, but he wouldn’t be such a drastic change on a squad that wasn’t crying out for it.

Essentially - only whiplash the squad if you are undoubtedly raising the standards or if the squad is desperate for the change. That we didn’t do that is I think why we’ve struggled.
 
I think we need to wait until the whole season is done
injuries are crazy and obviously TF can't manage CL and its undermining his entire effort

that's why for the next appointment we need a manager who has experience managing european competition
 
SissokoWasGood (BoL) said:
I don’t think ‘strikers missing a hundred chances when we’re on top’ can be applied to us unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Steeled myself last night and watched the MOTD highlights of Saturday’s game last night. We missed a few, although it wasn’t just the strikers at fault. Tel’s miss in the opening minutes gets worse with every viewing.
 
metalgear said:
I think we need to wait until the whole season is done
injuries are crazy and obviously TF can't manage CL and its undermining his entire effort

that's why for the next appointment we need a manager who has experience managing european competition
Click to expand...
Do we we won't be in Europe next year
 
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