‘To be stabbed in the back by your own chairman is unbelievable’ Tottenham Hotspur boss Thomas Frank’s little-known journey to the top revealed
Tottenham Hotspur’s new boss Thomas Frank almost quit football as a youth coach, then left Brondby when his chairman criticised him online under a pseudonym. Now he’s a Champions League manager…
Sometimes it’s the paths we don’t take. This very thought was beginning to fester in the mind of a young Thomas Frank. In his early 30s and a father of two, Frank was completing a master’s degree in psychology while working as an instructor for the Danish FA. All while holding down a part-time job as youth coordinator of Hvidovre, a second-tier side in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
“Nobody in Denmark was working harder than Thomas at that time,” smiles Teddy Hebo Larsen, the long-term chairman of Hvidovre and lifelong friend of Frank’s.
Thomas Frank almost quit coaching whilst still in Denmark
“He’d been with us six years, overseeing our talented youth teams. Thomas hadn’t been much of a player, which he freely admits, but he’d arrived at Hvidovre highly recommended by his hometown club Frederiksværk, where he’d coached their youngsters, and it wasn’t difficult to see why.
“He was bright, a brilliant educator and passionate about playing football the right way. He always encouraged possession football, intelligent pressing and, above all, strong communication.”
Frank’s burgeoning reputation had earned him a job offer from professional outfit B.93 – a full-time position as the club’s head of development – though he’d felt compelled to turn it down. “Thomas was considering giving up on football coaching entirely,” recalls Hebo Larsen.
He and his wife had their family to think about and, as you can imagine, he wasn’t earning a fortune. Even at B.93 he wouldn’t bring home very much, so he said no. But you could see that feeling of ‘what if’ was niggling at him.”
Despite having promised his wife he’d give up coaching, Frank had a change of heart and, in 2004, he joined B.93.
“It was sad to see him go,” Hebo Larsen says. “But deep down, I was just happy to see him follow his dream.”
Frank spent two years with B.93 before switching to Lyngby, where further good work earned him a move to the Danish FA’s youth ranks. From 2008 to 2013 he predominantly coached Denmark’s Under-17 and U19 teams, leading the former to their first ever World Cup, as well as a first Euros appearance in eight years.
“He was entrusted with the best and brightest the country had to offer,” explains Hebo Larsen. “He was thought of as one of the best in Denmark when it came to honing young talent.”
It was exactly that reputation that led to Frank’s big break in June 2013, when the 10-time Danish champions Brondby came calling.
The Copenhagen giants were a shambles at the time, having only avoided relegation in the final few games of the 2012-13 season, as well as bankruptcy thanks to an 11th-hour intervention from new owners just one month prior to Frank’s arrival.
The whole club needed a reset, and Thomas was seen as the perfect man to lead that,” recalls Per Rud, who joined Brondby as sporting director that same summer.
“We didn’t have the financial muscle to return to dominance, so it was decided we would concentrate on bringing through talented youngsters. Thomas had worked with many of them from his time at the Danish FA. He was inexperienced as a manager, but we saw it as a good long-term fit.”
Rud oversaw the establishment of ‘Brondby Masterclass’, an ambitious new academy that would help to polish the club’s next generation. Frank’s task was to turn them into a championship team. Brondby’s gaffer was given assurances time would be on his side.
“There won’t be [managerial] changes just because our strategy isn’t going as hoped,” new chairman Aldo Petersen confirmed. “Development is our goal and
Frank’s side tested that patience, going seven without a win at the beginning of the 2013-14 Superliga campaign, while being dumped out of the cup by his old club Hvidovre. Yet Frank slowly got his ideas across to a young team featuring a teenage Christian Norgaard, who he would manage again later on.
Brondby finished fourth, qualifying for Europe for the first time in three years.
“The players immediately liked Thomas as he was a great communicator, was energetic and what I’d call a football romantic,” former Brondby midfielder Martin Ornskov recalls.
“He insisted on playing the right way, being positive in possession and pressing high to win it back. We made a rocky start, but he turned it around. There was a process there and we could see that.”
