On Feb. 11, I woke up to the notification that the English football club I support, Tottenham Hotspur, had sacked their manager, Thomas Frank. His sacking comes during an abysmal run of form in the English Premier League over the past few months, where presently the Spurs only sit five points above relegation and run the risk of falling into that third relegation spot — a dilemma that could see the club fall from the Premier League for the first time since the modern league’s founding. So, like many fellow Spurs supporters across the world, I have been a proponent of Frank’s sacking. This season, perhaps only rivaled by last season, has felt the most “Spursy” to me, and for good reason.
Frank took the helm in June 2025 on the heels of the Spurs’ first major trophy in 17 years. That trophy, the 2025 UEFA Europa League, was won under a different manager, Australian coach Ange Postecoglou. Postecoglou, who served a two-season tenure, took a Spurs side placed 17th in the Premier League — one place above relegation — through a near-flawless European campaign, besting Manchester United F.C. and becoming European champions. However, the club’s board felt differently about his Premier League campaign and sacked him shortly after the club’s trophy parade, leaving supporters bittersweet about his two-year tenure that broke their trophy drought and cemented Postecoglou’s name in the club’s history.
On the same day as Frank’s sacking, Postecoglou expressed that he knew of his inevitable demise befire the Europa League final on popular football podcast The Overlap a revelation that signals tensions between him and club administration ran deeper than many were led to believe. While information surrounding Frank’s severance is still being released, I believe this may be a sign of a trend in the administration’s jaded approach to their managerial picks.
Frank was appointed with high hopes from club administration and supporters alike. Coming from a seven-year spell with fellow Premier League club Brentford F.C., Frank expressed bold, energetic ideas for the direction of the club. His tenure began with a trial by fire — friendlies against Bundesliga champions FC Bayern Munich and London rivals Arsenal F.C. along with the UEFA Super Cup final against 2024/25 UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint Germain. While he faltered against Bayern and secured a narrow win against Arsenal, many supporters were energized around his tactical vision and technical changes against PSG, which led to an incredibly strong display in a match many Spurs fans (like myself) believed to be an all-but-certain defeat. In the end, the Spurs lost 2–2 after penalties, but the synergy and system displayed on the pitch in a new formation with players in atypical positions against the best team in Europe felt like the beginning of a stronger era of Tottenham Hotspur. Oh, how we were misled.
So how has this season been “Spursy?” For starters, the running joke among the football community is that Tottenham Hotspur has the abnormal ability to outperform Europe’s biggest names and simultaneously drop points to clubs sitting in relegation; this phenomenon is described as “Spursy.” For example, the team’s victory last season in the Europa League and qualification for the Champions Leagues while placing 17th in the Premier League has been widely regarded as “Spursy.” One of the new club chants that emerged to the tune of Shakira’s “Waka Waka” embodied this: “Seventeenth I don’t know how, we won it in Bilbao” (Bilbao, Spain, being the host city of the Europa League final).
This season has certainly followed the example of last season’s contradictions. While the 2025–26 Premier League campaign started off strong for Frank’s side, over time, player injuries began to shake the foundations of his system. Meanwhile, frustrations between Frank and his players began to seep onto the pitch as loss after loss became the norm in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The New York Times Athletic FC correspondent for the Tottenham Hotspurs Jay Harris eloquently pinpointed the beginning of Frank’s demise and the club’s tailspin trajectory to a loss to Chelsea F.C. in November 2025: “Spurs should have been galvanised by winning the Europa League, but that defeat exposed the disconnect between the head coach, players and fans. Frank’s reputation never recovered, and Spurs never regained momentum.”
A different Tottenham Hotspur has emerged on the European stage in a most “Spursy” fashion. Recall that their Europa League win came with an automatic spot in the 2025–26 Champions League: Spurs have been putting it to good use. Despite their embarrassing form in England, Spurs have managed to stun the European community and place fourth in the Champions League table after the completion of the group phase — above proven superstars such as PSG, Real Madrid CF, Manchester City F.C., and FC Barcelona. While the road ahead to the Champions League final is a long and arduous one, there is a nonzero chance that Spurs advance further in the competition than anyone reasonably would expect, mirroring their 2024–25 season to an extreme. Therefore, as Spurs find themselves in great danger of relegation at home, they are flying in Europe. A true paradigm of the “Spursy” phenomenon.
Returning to the managerial situation, the Spurs are currently in limbo. In the grand scheme of Premier League politics, manager sackings are indeed natural parts of the game and occur more frequently than one might expect. Six managers, including Frank, have already been sacked in the Premier League this season. Yet, Frank’s sacking stands pointedly against the backdrop of Spurs’ managerial legacy — he has the lowest win rate of any Spurs manager since 2014, at 26.9 percent — and might genuinely cap off one of the darkest moments in Spurs’ modern history if they find themselves trophyless and in a relegation spot.
The genuine concern of relegation still sits deep in the hearts of Spurs fans, and our chances of moving away from it are not looking great. Spurs have a roughly two-week reprieve until their next match, the storied North London Derby against rivals Arsenal, meaning whomever their new appointee is for manager only has a few days to win the trust of his squad in hopes of not falling further down the table. There are still 13 matches to play this season, and I can only hope Spurs find their footing under a new manager and mend the wounds Frank left behind.
