Here’s every word the Tottenham Hotspur head coach said on Monday ahead of the Premier League match at Newcastle United
Thomas Frank faced plenty of questions at his latest press conference on Monday ahead of Tottenham’s Premier League trip to Newcastle.
Spurs continued their horrendous home form of just three league wins in 2025 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a 2-1 defeat to Fulham on Saturday night. The game was marked by supporter boos at half-time, full-time and early in the game after a mistake from Guglielmo Vicario leading to the Cottagers’ second goal.
The goalkeeper was booed on his next few touches of the ball and then cheered sarcastically when he cleared a ball out of play as he should have done in the original incident. After the game, Pedro Porro stormed off down the tunnel before coming back out and shouting at teenager Lucas Bergvall as he applauded the fans from the halfway line.
Our Spurs reporter Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions about all of the above to Frank. Here’s the full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.
What’s the latest team news?
Everyone ready for the Fulham squad is ready for Newcastle tomorrow.
What’s your reflection on the fans’ treatment of Vicario?
That as I said after the game, I completely understand the frustration. If we don’t win, there will always be a frustration. So that is normal and is part of it. Also when we haven’t won as much as we want at home not only this year but the last long period. I don’t know how long that is maybe years, maybe more. Of course then the frustration can grow a little bit more, that is understandable.
It’s my job to do what I can to make sure we are calm and look at the things in a way where we are splitting things up in terms of performance, what is the impact in how we tried to build the team. That is part of it. We would like to do.
We are nothing without the fans. No club is anything without the fans. Tottenham Hotspur we are nothing without our fantastic fans. Nothing. We need each other. There is nothing we want more than making them happy in every way.
My point was during matches that’s where we need each other. After, fair with the booing but during that is when I want to create a fortress. Some of you guys probably have more up to date stats in terms of how many games we have won, lost or drawn in the last couple of years but if any club wants to be successful, you need to create a fortress. If you want to create a fortress, it can only be together. Fans, team.
My job is to make sure we do everything we can to perform but can we do that together? That’s when you create a very difficult place to play.
How do you keep the players calm in difficult situations?
We of course have meetings yesterday and today. Yesterday, like normal debriefing the Fulham game and today looking more forward to Newcastle. There will be some meetings tomorrow. I said from the beginning we want to build something sustainable that can compete in all tournaments. We have a squad that is learning, and learned from last year playing Europa League and Premier League, going into this year where we are in the Champions League.
I want to do well in the Premier League. Competing on both fronts that is something that takes time to learn physically and mentally. We are searching to find the right formula that will click while we have to rotate some players to keep freshness, keep the intensity high, do a little bit for injury risk and stuff like that.
As a good example, in the next period we play four fantastic games in 10 days. Two, two and two days between the games. We are the only of the five (English) Champions League teams. Probably fair to say probably with a squad that is not as used to it as the others. No problem that’s why we are learning along the way, we also had a spell earlier in the season I think it was Everton, Newcastle, Chelsea and Copenhagen where it was also two, two, two. It was only us and Arsenal that had that. The fact is if you have two days between games it’s just more complicated. It’s not impossible. We still need to perform, we still need to win matches. It’s just facts.
What does Xavi Simons need to show to earn more minutes and can we expect him to start against Newcastle or in this busy period?
Yeah of course. There’s a reason why we got Xavi. I think he’s a very good player in every aspect. Xavi has trained well the last couple of days and in general training well. We talked about it before – it’s not the first time a player is stepping into the Premier League and just needs a little bit of adaptation to hit the ground running. That’s one thing the physical league, but also to play games every third or fourth day. And then in a team that’s maybe not top in sync, so how can we help each other? That’s part of the process.
How impressed have you been with Newcastle recently?
Newcastle are good! They have been good for a long time since Eddie Howe took over. I said that before, I admire Eddie and his coaching staff and everything they do massively. They are a very intense team, very aggressive. Speaking about having a good home record – that’s a difficult place to go to. Everyone knows that. I think they have won their last six home games so perfect timing. Good but not unbeatable.
How impressed have you been with Nick Woltemade in adapting to the league and taking over from Alexander Isak?
Definitely. Two different players but Nick Woltemade has done very well. He’s got the physicality but also he offers something different. He’s good to drop down, to link the game for them. That’s why he offers something a little bit different. The way he attacks the box I think he does that very well, finding good positions.
Vicario spoke to the media after the Fulham game – how much does that show about his personality and how important is he as a leader?
Vic is remarkable. His character is fantastic in every aspect. I think it’s about how you carry yourself every day in good times and in bad times. He’s very consistent in that way. Everyone knows that everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes on the football pitch, outside football, whatever we do. But the way he carried himself, that impressed me very, very much. I think also his response to setbacks and also mistakes, I think he does that very well.
Should fans not be allowed to have their opinion whenever they want?
Yes, just like I’m allowed my opinion whenever I want. I think it’s fair. I’m just saying what I think. I can’t say it enough, we have some fantastic fans. We are nothing without the fans, we need them every aspect. They are very much allowed to be disappointed, no problem. I’m just saying when you play a match at home, it is not as helpful as it is when they can see they are driving the team forward for example. Of course it’s up to us to do everything we can to perform, so it’s going hand in hand. But the beautiful thing about football and life is it’s never straightforward.
Pedro Porro posted on social media about Saturday, what did you think of it, and do you think he should have posted that?
I think it’s fair. I think it’s fair in that sense. Again, the players, they are individual people that can have their own opinions. And I think what he put out there was fair in every aspect.
Finally, you know how fickle football is, so how do you stay calm and with your players, keep things now on an even keel?
I think you’re, of course, searching to… I wouldn’t say find the winning formula, because it’s, let’s say, three different games. We played away to Arsenal. That was a bad performance. Away to Paris. That was a good performance. We lost both. And then we played a freak game against Fulham, where we down 2-0 after six minutes. But especially in the PSG, and especially in Fulham, that were some good performances. It’s all about keep going back to that, keep going back to what we can affect.
The process is how we train, the principles, and then keep the energy with the players, and for the players, and then go again. That’s the only way out of it. Of course, in the tough period, it’s easier when you win, but when you don’t, you need to do the same.
You said you would speak to Vic after the game, how did that go? And in general, how do you speak to someone that’s experienced that in front of 60,000 fans?
Yeah, I spoke with him after the game, and I said ‘how are you?’ and he said he was OK. You can say there’s different types. I think Vic is a relatively good player to deal with setbacks like that, and move forward. Others maybe it would have hit harder.
I also think if you are a goalkeeper, unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any goalkeeper in the world except, and I can say that, because I know Peter Schmeichel, never thought he made a mistake, but probably did sometimes. That can also be a way of dealing with it.
You know you make mistakes, and how you deal with that is a big part of how you become, let’s say, a goalkeeper, but also, actually, as a player.
With Vic going out in the next action and getting the ball and doing it that time and showing that strength of character, you want your players to take risks, how important is it that they feel that they can take risks and if they make mistakes not suffer a reaction like that?
I think it’s hugely important, because every game, every player makes small mistakes. There can be at a bad time. Some can be the crucial goal-defining mistakes that everyone can see, but there’s always small mistakes in a game where you lose the ball, where you miss a touch, where you miss a clearance, where you miss a one-vs-one, and you sometimes don’t get punished well enough, but how can you keep going no matter what in a game?
You and Pedro both use the same expression about ‘true Spurs fans’. You said they’re not true Spurs fans, Pedro said he loves the true Spurs fans, do you have fear that that might fire up those frustrated supporters in being told they’re not true Spurs fans?
I don’t know, and you can say, how do you define a true Spurs fan? I think all the fantastic fans we have believe they’re true Spurs fans. Some react in one way, some react in another, some are a little bit in between. No matter what, we need all of them.
You said it is the second time you’ve had four games in 10 days, how much does that impact you and the coaching staff?
Yeah, of course (it impacts) extremely and even if you have that extra day, it just gives you a day more to recover, but of course with 2-2-2, it’s very limited with what you can coach, how many meetings and how much individual time you can have with the players because it’s just pure recovery as well, but again it’s just the way it is. We need to find a way. I think the more bits it also impacts is that, if you want to kind of find a little bit of… I think every good team, they found out they have seven, eight, nine players to play when it’s the top matches, if that makes sense and that of course is what we are searching to find what is the thing that can click. And we can’t do it all the time because we also need to rotate to make sure we have enough intensity and freshness.
You’ve used different tactical approaches, is the long-term plan to settle on one particular system?
For me, it’s always the guiding principles that is the most important thing. How we build up? What do we do when we split centre-backs? What do we do when we have a sitter or two sitters? What do we do with the position in front of that? How do we attack with playing one on the side? How do we press? And that will always more or less be the same no matter if you play 4-3-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-4-3, whatever, so it’s always the guiding principles. It’s about how we can get the best players on the pitch that make the team the best way.
What have you noticed about the defence of late with 13 goals conceded in four games?
You can say the four goals we conceded against Man Utd and Fulham is some of the goals I would like to avoid a bit more and also those two games, if you can see at the actual amount of shots we conceded, I think we conceded five shots and seven shots. It’s very low. If you can see at the xG, you can see those games are very low, so the other stats behind it was good. And then there’s two other results where we conceded too much against two, unfortunately, two of the best teams in the world.
How do you mend this relationship with the fans because it feels at a tipping point where you need them but yourself and the players have lost a lot of them?I think if we were going into every game, I’m pretty sure every fan wants us to win and wants to support and wants to do everything. And then if not going to plan, then maybe some get more frustrated than others. Again, I think there’s always some that shout louder than others, so I don’t think fans, when you say you lose the fans, how many is that? Five per cent? 10 per cent? 15 per cent? 20 per cent? How much is it? I don’t know. We would like to get all 100 per cent on board and there’s only two things we can do. We can perform and keep connected.
Would you consider speaking to fan groups or talking to fans after a game like we see in different countries?
I would consider a lot of things. I don’t know? I think there’s two ways. That’s performing and connecting. Connecting is a lot of things. I, in general, always believe in dialogue, but we’re privileged. We have a lot of fans, so there’ll be a lot we need to reach out to.
