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Thomas Frank was axed by Tottenham after a chaotic six weeks in which players were left baffled by his tactics and the club was plunged into a relegation battle.

A number of players felt they could no longer support him as Frank departed with the worst win rate in Spurs’ Premier League history. Tuesday’s toxic 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle United was their 11th loss of the season and left them just five points above the drop zone.

The i Paper understands a number of players felt they did not always understand what they were being asked to do and were left confused by a negative approach in what they perceived as winnable games.

Cristian Romero’s recent social media posts, which appeared to criticise the board for a lack of investment in the squad, had support from others in the dressing room, particularly as the club’s injury crisis worsened over the winter.

At least two players voiced a desire to leave in January, with Mathys Tel going public in his hope of a loan spell to gain more minutes. Frank had limited his opportunities and initially left him out of the Champions League squad altogether for the league phase and knockouts due to limits on squad size and homegrown player requirements.

Inside Spurs there was some sympathy with Frank on two counts. The board agreed with his assessment that this was always going to be a transitional season after finishing 17th last term (though Ange Postecoglou had also won the Europa League).

Injuries were also seen as a major factor in Tottenham’s plight. Frank never had a fully fit squad to choose from as he oversaw just two home league wins, with Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison missing the entire season so far and Dominic Solanke facing long spells out.

Frank had an especially strong relationship with sporting director Johan Lange, a fellow Dane. He also had regular lunches with chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, as well as Nick Beucher – a key powerbroker representing the Lewis family who own the club.

The i Paper was told contingency plans were first made after the shock defeat to West Ham on 17 January. That was the first indication that it had been accepted the appointment – made under previous chairman Daniel Levy – had not worked out, but he stayed in place to buy more time.

Levy’s exit in September further complicated matters. There has been ongoing speculation around a takeover and Levy still owns a 29.88 per cent share in the ownership group Enic.

Since Ventakesham took a more prominent role, with non-executive chairman Peter Charrington less involved in the day-to-day running, there have been a number of major changes.

Former Arsenal CEO Venkatesham plans to overhaul the wage structure to attract more high-profile players, but in keeping with the rest of the top flight Spurs had a relatively quiet January, signing just two players – Souza and Conor Gallagher – and buying no attackers, despite it being the most urgent requirement.

The threat of relegation and its financial implications after just two wins in 17 games is now very real and that is what forced a decision. Spurs had already been knocked out of both domestic cups by January, though they have enjoyed some respite in Europe.

Fans had frequently voiced their fury at Frank over his eight months in charge, goading him with chants of “sacked in the morning” again this week and singing the name of Mauricio Pochettino, one of the favourites to replace him after he leads the USA into this summer’s World Cup.

While Frank’s relationship with supporters strained by him claiming that those who booed Guglielmo Vicario for his error against Fulham were “not true Tottenham fans”, there was some understanding in the club as to why he said it. It was interpreted as him backing the goalkeeper rather than a deliberate effort to attack the fans.

That anger came to a head – and came very close to home for the board – against West Ham, when one fan confronted senior managing director Vivienne Lewis near the hospitality section after the final whistle.

Spurs have a window to decide on their next appointment as they do not play again until they face Arsenal on 22 February. The i Paper understands there is no prospect of procuring Andoni Iraola from Bournemouth in mid-season. Ex-Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi is available after leaving Marseille and former Spurs striker Robbie Keane, now managing Hungarian side Ferencvaros, has also been linked.

It took Frank’s position becoming untenable for Spurs to begin the hunt for their third manager in nine months – one who will keep them from crashing into the Championship.

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Words, words and more words, not one of which made any difference to a league table recording the inexorable slide of Tottenham Hotspur. Thomas Frank gave arguably the best performance of any on another depressing night for Spurs, treating with patience and respect every question that came his way, but it was not enough to save him.

Had his inquisitor with the TNT mic joined the chorus promising the prophetic sack in the morning he could not have been more deliberate in his provocations. It felt gratuitous but Frank did not falter, countering every journalistic thrust with explanations if not answers. It is clear he did not have any of those.

He cited injuries, 11 before the game and another to Wilson Odobert after 35 minutes. He referenced a lack of confidence. The players would, he said, be unstinting in their preparations for the north London derby on 22 February, assuming he would still at the wheel by then.

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Frank was, as he also pointed out, just one cog in a system that was already failing. The interrogation continued in the Spurs media suite which hosted exactly the same trial a year ago when Ange Postecoglou was in the dock. Big Ange offered mitigations. There were none then, not even a European trophy saved him, and there are none now with Spurs holed up in 16th place, just five points clear of the bottom three.

Had Benjamin Sesko not smashed Manchester United level in added time at West Ham, the Hammers would have closed to within three points. As it is Nuno and the lads sense the panic gripping their London neighbours.

The fans were done with Frank, no matter how sincere his pledge to fight. His presence had become counter productive, the lack of buy-in from the players and the supporters contributing to the negative spiral. It seemed a cruelty to keep him in post as long as they did when it is clear he had lost what power he had to influence those around him.

These moments carry their own ritual elements, a football manager hung, drawn and quartered for our entertainment like a medieval execution, the spectacle intended to gather up the blame and dump it on the defendant, leaving the higher-ups in the clear. Again.

The blurb just a few months ago when Spurs unveiled a new structure aimed at “sustained high performance” powered by a “modernised football operation” under technical director Johan Lange promised rebirth befitting the palatial setting. A jargon-led Spurs fit for the future.

A relegation fight was not mentioned in that brochure, but that is the reality now. Despite finishing 17th, Postecoglou was spared that fate by the hopeless cases beneath him, Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton too far gone to survive.

Whilst Wolves and Burnley appear irretrievable in 2026, Spurs are left to dog it out with West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Brighton and Crystal Palace to avoid the Championship. And of that cohort Spurs appear the most fragile alongside Forest. At least Sean Dyche knows the terrain.

Football does not have the patience Frank demanded. It is not like the corporate environment that today’s ownership structures ape. Fans aren’t customers, no matter the desire to make them so. The atmosphere against Newcastle hung like sacks of coal on the backs of the players.

A group that looked organised and plausible at Old Trafford a week prior before the immolation of skipper Cristian Romero, were hesitant and fearful against Newcastle, rolling over against a team dealing with its own strife.

Frank is clearly a capable coach and were he working in a laboratory under stable conditions would work it all out. But in this game the men and women in white coats respond to mood not fact, and come for you at the first sign of trouble.

It would have been an astonishing act of faith were Spurs to have stood by Frank. Like it or not he was part of the problem, unable to counter the forces dragging everybody down. Getting rid of him might not work. Keeping him felt like a guarantee it wouldn’t.

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This weekend, Wigan Athletic travel to the Emirates to face the best team in the country away from home in the FA Cup. It recreates memories of old Wigan, successful Wigan, competing with giants as equals.

In April 2012, Roberto Martinez’s team won a Premier League game there as part of their late-season great escape. The following year, a first major trophy but relegation. And then everything fell apart. 

There had been too much chaos here for too long. Between 2013 and 2023, Wigan won their only major honour, suffered five relegations, enjoyed three promotions, employed 12 different managers. Hard to even stand still when everything is always moving.

Those managerial decisions were made by five different owners; nothing indicates the chaos and emergency better.

From International Entertainment Corporation (Hong Kong) to Next Leader Fund, another Hong Kong-based consortium that put Wigan Athletic into administration. From the magnificent, club-saving work by Caroline Molyneux and the supporters’ club to Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi and Talal Mubarak al-Hammad, who paid players late and were eventually forced out.

Mike Danson was the saviour, the local businessman made good who agreed to take ownership and try to take Wigan forward. So how is it that it is Danson who is overseeing a club 22nd in League One? That would be Wigan’s lowest finish since 1997 and return fourth-tier football for the first time since the same year.

Once existential threat has subsided, and financial emergency has given way to strategies that aim to reduce repeated annual losses, something else appears that is just as hard to manage: the ordinary. Focus switches to league position, recruitment decisions and failed managers, the stuff that decides seasons rather than saves social institutions.

Last week, Wigan Athletic’s hierarchy publicly backed manager Ryan Lowe. On Saturday, Wigan promptly lost 6-1 at Peterborough United and the club dusted off the corner flag photo and sacked Lowe. You can (generously) credit sporting director Greg Rioch and chief executive Sarah Guilfoyle for their loyalty, but when that turns in an instant it does rather suggest that they have little handle on a perilous situation. 

Lowe, their appointment, did not work out at all: 11 months, 49 matches and a win ratio below one every four matches. The feeling is that the squad should at least have been able to finish mid-table, but then Lowe followed Shaun Maloney for their inability to extract better.

I have read reports from supporters who were at London Road on Saturday. One describes it as “worse than admin”; another says it was his “lowest point in 25 years watching Wigan.” 

It would be easy to accuse those fans of possessing short memories, or even entitlement given everything that came before. But I think that misses the point. There is a fascinating psychodrama that can envelop post-crisis football clubs and their fanbases.

Financial emergencies are grim to experience, but they are also simplifying. A club becomes stripped down to the basics: survival over progress. Players are judged generously simply because they are there at all.

Managers are judged similarly (take Henrik Pedersen at Sheffield Wednesday and his current win percentage of 2.9) due to the enormity of the task. When that threat recedes, mirrors are uncracked and cleaned and a club is left staring at its own reflection again.

It creates an inescapable dichotomy. In crisis, the mood rarely gets toxic (and if it does, that toxicity is directed towards an errant owner). In “ordinary” times, that toxicity grows more quickly and is shared out amongst many supposedly guilty parties. Pride in the club’s existence is warped into frustration at its direction.

Stability has returned to Wigan if you view the club through the wider lens. No longer am I coming here to report upon financial devastation or the piecemeal recovery from it. Players are not being sold to keep the lights on. Supporters are confident that they will at least be able to attend matches in 12 months’ time. For a long while even that felt like a privilege. 

But surviving chaos does not end the challenges, merely reforms them. Neither does it automatically bestow an ability to function efficiently or logically. Tell supporters that you have overcome one mountain and they will ask – as is their right – where the next peak lies and how the club intends to climb it.

And so Wigan Athletic, after all their previous misdirection, arrive at another crossroads. The concerns over those in positions of influence will only ease if they get their next appointment right and reconnect strands that have become disparate. There are obvious ingredients: better communication, better choices, better results. They fought for years to be normal again. Now they are fighting for disappointment to avoid becoming the norm.

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Great news for Peter Shilton, David Beckham and Kyle Walker. All are up for this year’s Pulitzer Prize, by virtue of having played football for England a few times.

That was the logic behind Eni Aluko’s latest two-footer on Ian Wright: that if you have won 105 caps for the Lionesses, you should qualify automatically for the big gigs in journalism and broadcasting. Wright, she said, was not an “ally”, because he refused to give up punditry jobs to make way for her.

In an unspeakable affront to her sensibilities, Aluko was forced to watch England win the Euro 2025 final from the stands, all because the best TV jobs had not been “gate-kept” for women.

Wright may be a man who has supported the women’s game for more than 30 years, long before it was lucrative or fashionable to do so, but he is still a man – Aluko appears to think that alone should have seen him barred from the stadium.

Here’s the reason Aluko’s comments are so damaging. For no reason other than ego, they seek to stifle the growth of a sport that is meant to be flourishing. Those who genuinely want to see women’s football thrive should be encouraging people of all genders, ages and persuasions to engage with it. ITV are lucky to have Wright, one of the most popular pundits in the country, to help them do that.

But whatever the intention, what Aluko said is disparaging to women too. It implies female pundits and presenters have been selected because of their anatomy rather than their ability. Pundits like Alex Scott already have to deal with constant insinuations that they have been appointed only as a token woman.

Another superb broadcaster, Laura Woods, replied deftly on social media: “Caps don’t win automatic work and they don’t make a brilliant pundit… The way you communicate, articulate yourself, do your research, inform your audience, how likeable you are and the chemistry you have with your panel are what makes a brilliant pundit.

“‘The women’s game should be by women for women’, is one of the most damaging phrases I’ve heard.”

As Aluko doubled down on Talksport, panellist Simon Jordan put it pretty well too: “The sheer weight of entitlement you seem to believe you have would sink the weight of the Titanic”.

That one will have stung. Aluko is not keen on entitlement – in fact she once insisted that those whose incomes were decimated by the pandemic were indulging in a “do-nothing” mentality by relying on the Government’s furlough scheme. The next day, she apologised

These are infinitely weird hills to die on and just prove Woods’s point – that pundits will only get work if they are popular.

Aluko’s sad descent into a pantomime villain has obscured her voice on more valuable subjects. She has spoken bravely about the difficulties faced by black women in sports media and has previously said she did not believe men’s football was a “safe space” for women. Many women will disagree but that should not discount her telling of her own experiences.

Last year, Aluko also suffered appalling online abuse at the hands of Joey Barton, for which he was prosecuted.

Men like Barton and Mark Sampson, the former England coach whom she accused of racism and harassment, are the real enemies of women’s football. Not Wright.

Aluko insists she has “nothing against Ian” but suggested his failure to accept her apology 10 months ago, the last time she criticised him for working in the women’s game, had “greenlit further abuse”.

You have to wonder how she might speak about people she does have something against. Instead it comes across as another act of needless self-sabotage.

In the same way that sports journalists do not necessarily make very good footballers (something to which I can attest), elite players do not always translate their abilities into the studio. On the contrary, Match of the Day’s post-Lineker success has been built on the humour, knowledge and insights of Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan – none of whom played the game professionally.

Wright goes even further by campaigning for girls to be given equal access to football in PE. One of the great joys of the past few years has been the sight of men and boys with female players’ names on the back of their shirts. Excluding Wright would be a message that they are not welcome, when the vast majority of people in the women’s game say that they are. That is why Aluko’s one-woman crusade is going to fail.

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Two thumbs up, Jack Grealish was smiling from his hospital bed as he confirmed Everton’s worst kept secret.

“Didn’t want the season to end like this, gutted,” the caption on his Instagram post read. And just like that it was over – 22 games, two goals, six assists and a loan move that felt like a bit of a game-changer for Everton.

But is it the last the club will see of Grealish, who has promised to return from a stress fracture of his foot “fitter, stronger and better than before”?

Don’t bet on it, at least not according to those familiar with the situation surrounding a winger who has rediscovered his love for football at the Hill Dickinson Stadium this season.

There is a £50m option to turn the loan into a permanent move that becomes active after the end of the season but that was never intended to set Grealish’s price.

Instead it was more for accounting purposes, to set Manchester City’s valuation of the player in the summer of 2025.

While Everton will not trigger that clause there is some enthusiasm for bringing him back at the club next year, either on a permanent basis or through another season-long loan.

And the noises from City are that they are ready to get around the table at the end of the campaign if Everton want to make it happen.

Everton’s valuation, The i Paper has been told, is much closer to the £20-25m mark – still a considerable outlay for a player who will turn 31 in September.

Premier League clubs don’t tend to spend that kind of money on players reaching the end of their career but Grealish possesses star quality and has been able to affect big matches this season.

Commercially he is also a dream and insiders believe that his signing also helped open doors to recruit other players, sending a message that the club have turned the page on the era of annual relegation fights. The Toffees are understood to have committed £12m to the loan.

Grealish certainly appears up for it anyway. He has enjoyed working under David Moyes – who retains that trademark intensity and has challenged Grealish to provide more assists and goals – and is open to a return.

With or without him, the next stage of the Everton rebuild is intriguing.

As detailed by The i Paper last month, the plan was never to do big business in January but the loan move for Chelsea’s Tyrique George, 20, seemed to follow the club’s blueprint of driving down the average age and bringing in players of potential.

Moyes has always made the case that established, experienced players are also required to give the squad balance – and there was agreement that Grealish represented a special case in the summer.

Wages could also be another factor. While financial constraints via either profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) or the new squad cost ratio (SCR) rules are loosening, Everton still have to be aware of the bottom line of any deals they broker.

Football finance experts have told The i Paper that the club is likely to have enough PSR “headroom” to comfortably commit to a £70m net spend in the summer.

Of course that figure will balloon if they manage to secure European football this season, which remains a distinct possibility with Everton nestled just six points away from fifth ahead of the midweek Premier League matches.

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Burnley is a club with a ceiling, even if Sean Dyche, the seventh-placed finish and European football temporarily removed it to let supporters stare at the stars. Burnley is a relatively unfashionable East Lancashire family club with roughly 20,000 matchday supporters that will always struggle to increase revenue significantly and thus has no right to expect consistent Premier League football.

But six years ago, Burnley were about to finish in the top half of the Premier League and thus ensure their fifth straight top-flight season. Under the majority ownership of Mike Garlick and John Banaszkiewicz, Burnley had no external debt and managed to break even during the pandemic season, a significant achievement. The worst that ever seemed likely was bobbing along for a little too long without excitement and so allowing apathy to creep in.

That changed in December 2020, when ALK Capital, led by Alan Pace, bought out Garlick and Banaszkiewicz and took 84 per cent of the club’s shares. The takeover was leveraged by debt, similar to the Manchester United buyout by the Glazer family, with loan repayments and interest rates agreed and finance provided by MSD UK Holdings. In simple terms: Burnley now had a mortgage.

Debt-leveraged takeovers are controversial because they create risk on the part of the club by a new owner that did not exist before. In June 2023, Premier League clubs voted unanimously to cap leveraged buyouts to avoid clubs being laden with excessive debt. In Burnley’s case, that loan was reported to be £65m.

When Burnley were relegated from the Premier League in 2022, a significant part of that loan became due. Burnley’s debt now stands at £113m, costing them an estimated £10m a year.

But finding full information on Burnley’s owners isn’t easy. The 2020 takeover was completed by a company named Calder Vale Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Velocity Sports Ltd (Velocity was controlled by ALK Capital). Calder Vale Holdings is now in liquidation having never filed any accounts. The club transferred to Velocity Capital – Companies House lists the filing of their accounts, due by December 2024, as still overdue. 

Premier League clubs having external debt is not, in itself, necessarily an issue. But Burnley have got worse on the pitch, too. They went from an overachieving, semi-stable Premier League club into a yo-yo team that will soon suffer its third relegation in five seasons. The Premier League experience has become so depressing that many supporters actively prefer the Championship.

The problem with that? Burnley now need the revenue. In their last two seasons, the club have spent around £208m on transfer fees and recruitment has been largely unsuccessful.

Last summer, over £70m was spent on Lesley Ugochukwu, Armando Broja, Loum Tchaouna and Bashir Humphreys. The final three of that list have started 26 league games between them in 2025-26. 

In previous years, Burnley have offset the loss of Premier League revenue by selling key assets: James Trafford, Wilson Odobert, Sander Berge, Dara O’Shea. But now it is hard to envisage who higher-end clubs would conclude to be viable. Maxime Esteve and Quilindschy Hartman, perhaps; little much else.

This new Burnley existence may not cause much harm while the relationship lasts. Although debt-leveraged buyouts are unpopular with fan organisations, there is no suggestion that ALK Capital’s intentions are not honourable and they will consider promotion again next season as a reasonable ambition if they are indeed relegated.

But on Saturday, the mood at Turf Moor became toxic, a sea of harrumphs and groans at displeasing football until Burnley inevitably fall behind and more existential questions about the direction of the club. Supporters on social media have begun to offer concerted criticism of an ownership group that they believe has failed their club.

Before the West Ham game, Pace was interviewed by BBC Sport about supporter criticism and hardly poured cold water on a growing fire of malcontents.

“Have you ever had a three-year-old kid throw a temper tantrum in the middle of an event?” Pace asked the reporter.

“At the end of it, you get embarrassed and you say you’re sorry and you hope that they grow up. And, when they do grow up, you hope that they contribute to society.”

The problem here is the unknown. For so many years, Burnley were a dependable, reliable, safe football club that tried to do the best it could and looked after its people by ensuring that it would always be there. No debt, no doubt.

Now Burnley have become something different, a blurry identity and a financial future that is in the hands of a few more than the many.

The dangers are obvious and the advantages simply have not been realised. Burnley’s ownership has failed the club.

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Newcastle United are bewildered by the sudden blizzard of stories surrounding in-demand midfielder Sandro Tonali.

What started on transfer deadline day as a claim that Tonali had been offered to Arsenal by his representatives – subsequently denied and then described as a “total non-starter” to The i Paper – appears to have grown legs.

Manchester United have him on a “long list” of replacements for Casemiro while sources have confirmed to The i Paper that Chelsea have received encouragement if they wanted to pursue a summer move for the Italy midfielder.

In an ironic twist, he’s one of the alternatives to AZ Alkmaar sensation Kees Smit, who is also on Newcastle’s wish list as the Magpies look to correct some of their recruitment missteps with a big summer in the market.

There’s an emerging narrative here: Newcastle, suffering a difficult transition season after the glory of winning the Carabao Cup last year, are vulnerable to their rivals picking off their best players.

At St James’ Park, they firmly reject that view. Tonali has given reassurances on his focus, happiness and future intentions in recent days and weeks and even if his stance changed, they are protected by an extension to the long-term contract he signed during his gambling ban.

Talk of them “setting a £100m price tag” for Tonali is inaccurate, with Newcastle adamant in public and private that he’s not for sale.

It’s also worth pointing out that Tonali has always been grateful for the way Newcastle backed him when he was banned for 10 months and that will also be a factor, although the hierarchy that supported him back then has changed.

The problem for the Magpies is that in recruitment circles, people speak. Whether Newcastle like it or not Tonali is seen as one of the players that could be extricated from his current club and some of their Premier League rivals seem to be on manoeuvres around him for a few months.

Their inability to persuade star striker Alexander Isak to stay in 2025, while a very different situation to Tonali’s, has put them on the back foot in that respect.

They cannot afford to let Tonali tread a similar path. The same is true of Tino Livramento, whose contract talks have stalled, and Anthony Gordon, who retains admirers for his stellar work in the Champions League despite his barren run in domestic competitions.

To be taken seriously it is absolutely critical that Newcastle stick to their stance on Tonali, even if the whispers around interest in him develop into something a bit more full-throated.

There’s a bigger picture here though. What exactly is the Newcastle project in 2026? At the moment the answer to that appears to be arguing over the future of Eddie Howe, who was moved on Monday to claim he would “walk away” from the club if he didn’t feel he was the right man to take them forward.

After three successive defeats – and with a midweek trip to struggling Tottenham a litmus test of their ability to win on the road – that debate is dominating black and white bandwidth but obscures some uncomfortable truths for the club’s ownership.

While they undoubtedly need results and European competition to maintain some on-the-field momentum, it is high time the club made tangible progress on the big ticket stuff that PIF have had in their in-tray for years.

A deal to buy land for the club’s new training ground has been agreed but no timescale has been put on the announcement. If that can be fast-tracked it would give supporters and players, like Tonali, something to hang their hat on.

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