Former Tottenham analyst Joe Newton has shed light on the challenges Thomas Frank faced during his brief stint as Spurs manager, describing the club as a "completely different beast" compared to Brentford.
Newton's Insight on the Scale of the Job
Newton, who worked with Frank at both Brentford and Tottenham, was one of three backroom staff members to follow the Dane to north London last summer. Despite a promising start, results deteriorated after the new year, leading to Frank's sacking in February and Newton's subsequent departure.
Reflecting on his time at Spurs, Newton admitted he was surprised by the level of publicity he received after leaving Brentford. "It's no disrespect to Brentford. They have done absolutely amazing, and I am thankful that I was part of that growth into the Premier League, but it's another completely different beast going into a club like Spurs," Newton said on the Chris Gill Podcast.
He highlighted the stark contrast in facilities, noting that the south stand at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium holds as many fans as Brentford's entire Gtech Community Stadium. "In terms of those sorts of facilities that we went into at Spurs, it's just on a completely different level," he added.
Expectation and Publicity
Newton confessed that the scrutiny was intense. "That expectation, I think as well, not took me by surprise, but obviously the sort of publicity around me specifically, going in with Thomas, my name was getting mentioned in articles and things. And honestly, for about a week, my phone was blowing up, and it was crazy. So that sort of made me realise quite early that it was obviously, I knew it anyway, but a big club that you're going into and that expectation."
Challenges on the Pitch
Spurs started brightly under Frank, including an impressive 2-0 win at Manchester City in his second Premier League game. However, balancing Champions League and Premier League commitments proved difficult. "The European games we were playing every three to four days, obviously, that limits your training time, prep time, everything's quicker," Newton explained. "Turnaround of games, analysis, meetings and player availability. It did end up sort of piling up."
Spurs failed to win any of Frank's final eight league matches, and Newton acknowledged that by the end, "everything that could go wrong was going wrong." Despite the outcome, he defended the decision-making process. "I'd say that I'd look back at my processes and, of course, in hindsight, there might be an odd thing here and there I would have done differently. But in general, I don't think I could have done any more."
Newton emphasized that the decisions made were based on thorough discussions. "Because of the way Thomas works in terms of having these coaches meetings pretty much every day, we obviously came to decisions that you might from the outside think, why on earth have they done that? But every sort of scenario and the information that was passed to us, I think if you put us back in that situation, taking hindsight out, I think you would still end up coming to the same decision because I feel the process in terms of how we got to that decision was right."
He concluded: "Some things just weren't going for us, and by the end of it, it felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong."
