Thomas Frank had to go but rotten Spurs are stuck in a familiar cycle of failure

And so the Tottenham hierarchy bring an end to everyone’s fun by putting Thomas Frank out of his misery.

The former Brentford boss has been sacked after a disastrous eight months in charge. Tottenham are 16th. That’s the Tottenham who have a 60,000 seater stadium. That’s the Tottenham who have the seventh-highest wage bill in the Premier League. That’s the Tottenham who not too long ago were considered amongst the challengers for the actual Premier League.

You did not have to have Derren Brown-esque levels of mind-reading to see this decision coming. But why now?

Tottenham have been awful for ages. They are winless in the last seven. In the past 17 league matches, Tottenham have won just two. In the statement announcing his exit, Spurs said they were determined to ‘give him the time and support needed to build for the future’ but surely they had realised long ago they were backing the wrong horse.

In many ways, Frank just seemed completely unsuited to a job of this level. Results that might have been ignored as a Brentford boss were now being dissected in front of an international audience.

He also never seemed to grasp what it means to be a manager at a ‘big’ club and him drinking from an Arsenal cup then dismissing it as nothing sums up how his logical thinking failed to match the often illogical thinking of fans of elite clubs.

Frank will likely land on his feet somewhere, either at another mid-size Premier League club or on the continent, but he is not the only one to blame for this mess.

He left the security of a well-run club like Brentford to the absolute bonfire that is modern Tottenham. The club had just won a European trophy but were on the other side of an existential crisis as to whether they should sack the man who guided them there.

Some Tottenham fans’ love for Ange Postecoglou meant Frank joined a club where some were not welcoming of a new man in charge, and he did very little to ever get them on his side.

The Tottenham squad is also incredibly average. Who would realistically be picked by one the top clubs in the league? Xavi Simons and Micky van de Ven are perhaps the only two but even they can go missing.

The top candidate to replace Frank is Mauricio Pochettino after the World Cup which, if appointed, will be an admission of a complete failure from the board to move the club forward.

MORE ON SPURS ON F365

* Who will be next Tottenham manager now Thomas Frank is sacked? Poch? De Zerbi? Xavi?
* Frank sacking means Howe has claimed consecutive Spurs manager scalps
* Thomas Frank is just like Keir Starmer; not bad men but playing a bad hand badly

The Argentine was blessed with the best Tottenham squad in years but that level of quality should have been the standard going forward. Instead, Spurs’ apathy towards progression has resulted in regression. In October 2017, Spurs smashed Liverpool 4-1 at their adopted home of Wembley. In January of the following year, Liverpool purchased Virgil van Dijk while Spurs stood still.

Pochettino’s era ended with a man who looked exhausted. One whose squad had become stale and not rejuvenated by signings.

Having had a philosophy of bringing in exciting young talent, Spurs’ desire for silverware saw them move in a different direction and appoint a trophy-winning specialist in Jose Mourinho but ask any of Chelsea, Inter or Real Madrid and they will tell you that Mourinho only works if he is given the players he wants – something Spurs did not do.

The same can be said of Antonio Conte who eventually replaced Mourinho on the other end of a Nuno Espirito Santo cameo that seems like a dream now. Conte, a man who has won pretty much everywhere he has gone, produced one of the best rants of all-time after a 3-3 draw at Southampton seemed to push him over the edge.

In his place, Spurs needed an injection of optimism so brought in Ange Postecoglou – who did win a trophy – but his gung-ho approach was woefully exposed. They thought Frank would be a smart appointment but he has suffered a similar fate.

None of these managers fit because Tottenham have placed themselves in their own shackles. The well-publicised wage structure that was built on bonuses rather than a base salary simply meant the best players went elsewhere. Tottenham have spent money but none of their signings would be considered the best of the best, players that every top club wanted. Their top summer target of Eberechi Eze would probably have started every game for them but is now stuck on the bench at rivals Arsenal.

Tottenham’s window to kick on came and went with Pochettino. The year they came close to winning the league should have been the year that the board took off the shackles, spent money which they quite clearly had and allowed the club to break into the upper echelons and stay there. Instead, they thought they would survive with what they had and have found that standing still is as bad as stepping backwards.

The last time Tottenham were good was the tail end of the ‘have or have not’ eras in the Premier League. Sure there are some clubs that can spend more than others now but these days, everyone is flush with cash meaning you can no longer just spend your way out of trouble.

So what next for Tottenham? An interim before a Pochettino appointment in the summer seems likely but how will anything be different? The Premier League is too competitive these days to think that a ‘big six’ club can simply return to the top end of the table. Spurs’ chance to become part of the established elite has come and gone.

Tottenham’s stadium and location in London make them like to think of themselves as an elite club, but other than the presumably very nice cheese rooms, what makes them elite? One trophy in the past 17 years is not elite level. Spurs’ inclusion in the proposed European Super League showed just how much of a joke that idea was.

Pochettino may well come, he may well win enough games to convince the board that they were right all along, but things will not change.

It is a club that was left to fester and the rot has well and truly taken hold.

READ NEXT: Top 10 available managers: De Zerbi joins Alonso, Maresca, Xavi in strong list