When Morten Olsen was Denmark boss searching for young coaches with the energy and innovation to revolutionise his country’s development strategy, he liked what he saw in Thomas Frank.
‘He has a good nose,’ as Olsen puts it. ‘Very important in coaching. Always discussing things. Asking, “what do you think” and “what ideas do you have”. He was very interesting and did a marvellous job.’
When Brondby flirted with relegation and financial ruin they turned to Frank to restore pride by creating a team around emerging talent.
‘Always smiling with a positive mindset,’ says Per Rud, then sporting director of the Danish club. ‘Into the details. Very prepared, always ahead. A hard worker, first in, last out. Strong personality, behind the smile he can deal with football’s politics.’
When Dean Smith met the four coaches shortlisted to assist him and Richard O’Kelly at Brentford, it was Frank who sparkled in the interview, took English football in his stride, and proved eventually a worthy successor.
‘Good at debating, listening to others, making his point,’ says O’Kelly. ‘Adaptable, very practical. All commonsense, these are our players and this is what’s needed, how are we going to go about it?’
Thomas Frank is on the verge of making the switch from Brentford to Tottenham Hotpsur
The Dane is set to replace Ange Postecoglou and make a big step in his flourishing career
Both Morten Olsen (left) and Richard O’Kelly (right) explain why Frank would be good for Spurs
This is Frank’s career curve in nutshell. Solving problems on a journey from the backwaters of Zealand, through the Danish FA via a farcical demise at Brondby to his leading role in the Brentford miracle.
Adjusting to his surroundings and circumstances along the way. Learning and evolving. And now on the brink of becoming Tottenham’s head coach, with Daniel Levy hoping the 51-year-old Dane will crack the perennial puzzle in N17.
Frank puts his inquisitive nature down to his academic background. He had no professional playing career. Nor was he part of an academy. He played the game purely at a grassroots level and started coaching in his early 20s.
At the same time, he graduated with a degree in sport and started a master’s in coaching-based leadership in football only to abandon it when he landed a full-time coaching role.
‘It fostered a desire to be curious in life, to continuously study and pursue knowledge,’ says Frank, in an interview for the latest edition of the League Managers’ Association’s quarterly magazine ‘The Manager’.
This he has done, initially stepping from youth development inside clubs to five years at the Danish FA, coaching the U12, U15, U17 and U19 teams.
It was Olsen, a veteran of 102 caps as a stylish centre-half and Denmark boss for 15 years from 2000, who invited him into the national set-up and became a mentor as Frank led a talented generation to the semi-finals of the U17 Euros in 2011.
This squad featured Christian Norgaard, now captain of Brentford, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, about to make a loan move permanent from Spurs to Marseille. Frank’s move across London will come too late to halt Hojbjerg’s exit.
The now Brentford coach had no professional playing career but got a degree in sport
Brondby were in a mess in 2013 when they appointed Frank, entrusting him to restore former glories by building around a promising crop of young players.
‘A very modern coach,’ says Rud, now working in Portugal. ‘Listening a lot, reading a lot, talking to a lot of people, he has a very big network, and making good decisions.
‘He is pragmatic. Once he had a very clear style, but he has changed a lot. At Brentford, he found what was needed to get the best results. He is a clever guy. He will adjust. He is capable of fitting into whatever comes.’
The task at Brondby was complicated by a takeover midway through the first of his three seasons in charge.
Jan Bech Andersen, the new majority shareholder and chairman, came in and signed veteran stars including Daniel Agger and Johan Elmander, and quickly became impatient despite Frank’s enduring popularity with some supporters.
It all came to a head when comments on an online fans’ forum branding Frank’s tenure ‘lame’ and ‘unacceptable’ and accusing him of lacking the ‘ability to integrate new players’ and ‘stubbornly sticking to a system that doesn’t work’ were found to have been written by chairman Andersen under the pseudonym ‘Oscar’.
Frank quit and spent nine months out of work. Andersen is still Brondby chairman and replied to Mail Sport’s interest with this message: ‘Thomas and his coaching team have done an outstanding job at Brentford. Impeccable data driven scouting which have made huge on/off pitch success.
‘The transition from being a fairly philosophy driven coach for the national youth teams to be a Premier League coach with a limited budget is nothing short of an amazing achievement.
Frank’s first senior managerial role was with Brondby, where he lasted three years between 2013 and 2016
The 51-year-old initially joined Brentford as an assistant to Dean Smith before his move to Aston Villa
Following two years in the backroom staff Frank took over from Smith as manager in 2018
‘His adaptation and pragmatism have been two important factors, and it is fully deserved he now gets a chance at a tradition club like Tottenham.’
Brentford were a club with strong Danish connections because owner Matthew Benham also owned Midtjylland for nine years until 2023.
They were also a club in the habit of doing things differently so, when Benham and his directors of football Phil Giles and Rasmus Ankersen decided to strengthen the coaching staff, they encouraged Smith and O’Kelly to consider an overseas coach, serving up a shortlist of four.
They selected Frank, who accepted an invitation to move into one of the spare rooms of the house they shared in Windsor, yards from the castle, and quickly became integral.
‘One of those really good people,’ says O’Kelly. ‘He fitted in with who we were but was different enough to make you think. We’d go out for a beer sometimes and talk about football. I don’t know if we moved pepper pots around on the kitchen table, but we might have.’
Frank stepped seamlessly into the job when Smith and O’Kelly left for Aston Villa in 2018. He confessed to being nervous at first, practising his motivational speeches in front of the bathroom mirror, conscious he had not been a player at any level.
But he has the emotional intelligence to connect with people. He has managed elite players through difficult moments, Christian Eriksen through his return after cardiac arrest and Ivan Toney through a gambling ban. And his Bees have beaten some elite teams.
‘Look at the way they’ve caused Manchester City problems,’ says O’Kelly. ‘And they’ve done it playing in different ways. Thomas can put his record next to anybody. He has shown progress every year at Brentford and proved he can adapt.
When Frank first became Brentford boss he used to practice his team talks in the mirror
He is known for his emotional intelligence and helped Ivan Toney through his betting ban
Frank always wants to be adventurous and is ready for the next step with Tottenham
‘I didn’t agree with them getting rid of Ange but he’s perfect for what Tottenham want. And it’s lovely to see people in the game selected for the right reasons.’
Having led Brentford up via the play-offs, Frank had three priorities going into the Premier League. He wanted them to be incredibly fit, strong defensively, threaten from set pieces. His Bees triggered the modern obsession with set piece specialists.
After two years of survival, he wanted to be more adventurous. The plan was effectively delayed by a catalogue of injuries and Toney’s ban but, last season, they were exciting to watch.
Only four teams scored more in the Premier League and on 10 occasions they scored three or more. Twelve months ago, Frank might not have felt like a fit for Spurs with their appetite for thrills.
Now, he does. He has evolved like he always does. And those who know him well are not surprised by his progress. ‘It is easy for me to sit here and say I knew it,’ says Olsen. ‘But I knew it.’
