Thomas Frank ‘lacks the balls’ to be Tottenham manager and players do not respect him, claims ex-Spurs star

Nov 27, 2025 - 11:30

Ex-Tottenham star Ramon Vega has questioned whether Thomas Frank is tactically brave enough to be the Spurs manager.

Frank’s men were beaten 5-3 at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night as Tottenham continued their underwhelming start to life under the former Brentford boss.

Spurs were improved from the north London derby defeat to Arsenal but still soundly beaten

Despite some positive results at the start of the season, Spurs have won just one of their last six matches in all competitions, conceding nine goals in their most recent two.

The Dane’s appointment by ex-Tottenham chief Daniel Levy marked a significant shift from the club’s previous manager, Ange Postecoglou, who was deeply committed to one attacking style of play.

Frank, on the other hand, has tried to make Spurs more tactically versatile and defensively pragmatic, switching between multiple formations depending on the opposition.

Tottenham lined up with a back five in their 4-1 defeat at Premier League leaders Arsenal on Sunday before changing to a 4-2-3-1 against European champions PSG, both to no avail.

And ex-defender Vega, who spent four years at Spurs, argues that Frank is giving his players nothing to believe in.

“He is changing his mind every two seconds,” Vega told talkSPORT Breakfast.

“One thing with Ange, whatever you criticise him, he might be limited in his own way, but he had the balls. He stuck to his guns.
He did what he wanted.

“The players need this kind of certainty in the dressing room. That’s why I think when Ange was winning the Europa League with the young boys, 80 per cent of the season was with the young boys [due to injuries], the dressing room was sticking to him. And you can see that.

“I’m not sure this dressing room is starting to respect Frank because he’s changing how they play. They don’t know where to go, what to do. They haven’t got a strategically stable place to go.

“And the dressing room, as a player, when you know what the coach wants and he’s doing it week in, week out, the mentality is there, then the team starts to play well.

“But if you’re changing every five minutes, you really, really make the players very insecure. They don’t know where to go. And you can see that in these two games.”

Vega added: “If he doesn’t control the dressing room, he can be as good as he wants, as nice as he is, but he hasn’t got the balls.

“I don’t see Frank as suitable for this because I don’t think he has the balls. He hasn’t got a character to do this.”

Frank takes the positives

The Tottenham manager, conversely, decided to take plenty of positives from the eight-goal thriller in Paris.

“I’m pleased with the performance. It was the reaction I wanted from the players, from the team,” Frank insisted.

“We’ve been working very hard on that, the players, the staff, me, to make sure that we responded well and bounced back because that’s crucial after a bad performance.

Thomas Frank reacts during Tottenham's defeat to PSG — Frank saw plenty of positive signs despite Tottenham’s second consecutive defeat

“Today I saw more identity of the team I want to create, we want to create.

“Much more character, personality, aggressiveness. Three words you need to have in any team no matter how you want to do, how you want to play, whatever formation, whatever. Today we saw it, that I’m pleased with.

“Of course, I think it was a performance that was up there where we could get something out of the game, a draw or a win. So, that’s a little frustrating thing that we conceded some goals.

“But something to build on. Strikers scoring two goals. The whole team, I think, all performed well.

“Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, positive. When we played against a decent team where they have one Ballon d’Or winner (Ousmane Dembele) and I think the next one is playing in midfield. Vitinha. Wow, what a player.”