Tottenham should look across London to solve their manager crisis… Brentford’s Thomas Frank is the man for the job
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IT’S just crazy when you look at the current state of Tottenham Hotspur.
Here is a great club with no manager, no director of football and quite possibly no European football next season.
Their record goalscorer Harry Kane could be off, with their captain and long-serving keeper Hugo Lloris definitely on his way this summer too.
It’s a mess or, if you look at it another way, it’s a perfect storm — a very rare opportunity to totally blow things up and start with a clean slate under the right manager and director of football, with a long-term plan.
Tomorrow is Tottenham’s final home match of the season and the visitors are Brentford.
And I can’t think of many better managers than Brentford’s Thomas Frank to oversee a proper rebuild at Spurs.
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In fact — and Brentford fans won’t thank me for saying this — Bees keeper David Raya would be an excellent replacement for Lloris too.
And, after his ban for breaking betting rules is served, I also believe Ivan Toney would be the perfect long-term option to replace Kane.
Frank is an outstanding, ambitious and hungry manager.
I know some will say that his Brentford side play a lot of route one football but when they were promoted from the Championship under the Dane they were an excellent footballing side.
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He is an adaptable coach and, under him, I think Spurs would play in a more attractive style than they did when Antonio Conte or Jose Mourinho were in charge.
I know Toney has an eight-month ban but we are talking about a long-term plan here and he is definitely top-six quality, already a proven goalscorer.
It will be painful for Spurs to part company with Kane — he has been such a key figure for almost a decade now — but it would be the right thing for both the player and club if he moves on this summer.
I’ve already written that I think a move to Paris Saint- Germain would suit Kane well and it would certainly allow him to win trophies.
I saw him being linked with a possible move to the French champions this week and that doesn’t surprise me.
Manchester United are obviously interested and Bayern Munich have been mentioned too.
All of those clubs would surely pay more than £100million for the England captain — perhaps even nearer to £150m.
That would go a long way to funding a major overhaul because Tottenham need more quality across their squad.
Kane has a lot of influence at Spurs and if they don’t sell him this summer, another manager will have to come in and win his blessing.
It will just feel as though Spurs are muddling along for another season rather than having the complete reset the club needs.
I know many Tottenham supporters are angry that chairman Daniel Levy didn’t re-appoint Mauricio Pochettino and that the Argentinian is now going to Chelsea.
But I think that is one decision that Levy has got right. I played against Pochettino’s peak Tottenham team and that was a great side — young, dynamic, extremely hard-working and totally aligned to their manager’s methods.
But that was a specific time, with specific players. The Chelsea job suits Poch better and Spurs need a fresh start with a new vision — not a rehash of the past.
It will almost certainly get worse before it gets better at Tottenham.
There is so much competition in the Premier League that it will take two or three years at least before they can think about getting back into the Champions League.
Spurs need to see what Arsenal have achieved with their rebuild under Mikel Arteta, which involved a lot of senior players being moved on, and results getting worse for a time, before this season’s title challenge came.
The club needs to spell out that supporters will need patience and the manager — ideally Frank — will be backed for the long term.
I’ve got a lot of time for Ryan Mason, who is a great bloke and a bright coach, but he shouldn’t be given the job on a permanent basis.
It’s too big a job for a rookie.
If Ryan wants to be a No 1, and I think he does, he will need to learn that trade elsewhere.
Whoever takes over as Spurs manager will inherit a club with great support and with great infrastructure — they have one of the best stadiums and training grounds in world football.
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But as my mate Danny Rose — a member of Pochettino’s excellent side — said recently: "You can have the best house, but if there’s no furniture inside, it’s irrelevant."
Now is the time for Tottenham to go furniture shopping.