Thomas Frank - Former Head Coach

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

I'm not sure any manager who was convinced HE wouldn't be here in the summer, is doing any work towards getting the squad thru to the summer.

It was pretty much NothingBall.

True, but I think it was work towards making sure the squad was in the best possible condition to win the Europa games.

 

[Lemonade Money]

Looking back now....one thing that annoyed me about Ange is how he completely gave up on the league.

I'm not saying he should have tried harder so we got a few more points BUT as a development and discovery period. We had the luxury that season of 26pts would keep you up (a ridiculously low total).
He had just 5 EL games that really needed precise preparation.
After the Man U win we had 13 league games to do as we pleased with. That's a third of a season prep time to refine, adjust and show that, yeah, there might be life in this project yet. (And I'm not talking about results).

But it appears that, whether it was just a vibe he had or knew directly, that Feb hunch he was done for (as stated on the Neville podcast), just manifested in him not giving a fudge about those games and focusing on his self serving 'delivering a trophy in his second season'

To have just over a third of a season in this league as a gift of free hits to tune your team is almost unheard of.

I'm sure he could have made the decision much harder for the board especially as he had a trophy as an ace card.

if you are prioritising the EL, you need to keep the players match fit, and make sure they don't get injured. That pretty much stops you from playing a different team (i.e. playing youngsters, and he was doing that anyway) or trying different tactics with intensity (i.e. not half-hearted).