FA Cup defeat 

The worst Tottenham manager in 20 years? The damning stats that define Thomas Frank's tenure

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Tottenham were knocked out of the FA Cup on Saturday, with a convincing 2-1 victory for Aston Villa pouing further anguish on Thomas Frank’s tortured reign at the North London club. Elimination from the cup tournament now means that Spurs have won only one of their last seven games in all competitions.

The result now means that Frank is under immense pressure at Tottenham, with reports suggesting that the former Brentford head coach could be relieved of his duties in the coming weeks. Frank was appointed Spurs manager less than 200 days ago, when he replaced Ange Postecoglou at the club. However, new stats now underline how far the club have fallen under the Danish tactician and why they may be in the market for a third manager in less than a year.

 

 

Following Saturday’s defeat to Villa, Frank has won 12 games, drawn a further eight and lost 12 of his 31 matches in charge of Tottenham. That gives him a dreadful points-per-game average of just 1.32. And not only is that a 13% drop from his predecessor’s average of 1.52 points per game, but it’s also considerably worse than the managers that came before both of them.

Tottenham managers last 20 years

 

 

Indeed, Frank’s average represents the poorest return for any permanent Spurs boss in over two decades, officially undercutting the 1.35 PPG record held by Juande Ramos during his ill-fated spell between 2007 and 2008. The gap widens further when looking back to the “Golden Era” under Mauricio Pochettino (1.84 PPG) or even the pragmatic tenures of José Mourinho (1.77 PPG) and Antonio Conte (1.78 PPG). Frank’s inability to find consistency has seen him fall behind even Nuno Espírito Santo, who averaged 1.65 PPG before his dismissal in 2021.

 

Whether Tottenham will ultimately act after Saturday’s defeat remains to be seen. But everything in Frank’s first half season at the club suggests that the Dane is either entirely ill-equipped to handle the pressure of the job or encourage his squad to perform better. As such he is currently the worst Tottenham manager in 20 years. And that’s a hard stat to come back from.