Why Leadership in Sport is About More Than Having Played the Game at the Highest Level
Thomas Frank arrives a Tottenham Hotspur with little background as a player but having built an immense reputation as being one of the most emotionally intelligent managers in world football.
We recently ran an interview with a former MD of a Premier League side who singled out Jurgen Klopp as a man capable of leading both a football club and a FTSE 500 business.
Thomas Frank would also be on that very limited list.
The Dane will spend this summer attempting to rebuild a Spurs squad that has just won a first European trophy since 1984, but lost 22 matches in the Premier League in 2024/25. If that’s not ‘Spursy’, then Rich and Rob don’t know what is.
With the players apparently still fully behind Ange Postecoglou when he was given his marching orders by chairman, Daniel Levy, Frank’s first task will be to persuade the dressing room, not to mention the fanbase, that he is the man to take the club forward.
He has experienced bigger challenges.
Frank hails from the small Danish town of Frederiksværk in Zealand, the most populous island in Denmark. Frederiksværk, meanwhile, is home to just over 12,000 people, the most famous of whom will take his place in the Spurs dugout for the first time when his new side take on Arsenal for a North London derby with a difference in Hong Kong on 31 July.
The 51-year-old’s playing achievements could be scribbled on the back of a postage stamp. His managerial CV, in contrast, is something to write home about, despite its humble beginnings.
“Thomas started as a coach at Frederiksværk Boldklub, where he trained me among other players,” says Jacob Olsen, the son of the youth chairman who first persuaded Frank, then in his early 20s, to try his hand at coaching.
“Thomas's own football game was not at all on par with his coaching skills. Thomas's tactical skills are formidable, but his social skills, in particular, were at an extremely high level already by then. These skills created a fantastic bond between coaches, managers, parents and players.”
And herein lies one of Frank’s key characteristics. One of the major takeaways from his opening press conference as Spurs’ boss earlier this week, was the unguarded praise he heaped on his predecessor, Ange Postecoglou. The reason we heard him so regularly on radio stations such as BBC Five Live during his time as Brentford manager is because exudes an authenticity that has not only stayed with him since his early days in Frederiksværk but has also served to be one of his major attributes.
In short, the Frank we’ll see at Tottenham isn’t that far removed from the one the parents and players got to see when he was working with Frederiksværk under-8s.
Perhaps the greatest insight into his ability to make individuals feel special - which is ultimately how you get the best out of people in sport, in business, and in life - is illustrated by this tale.
Olsen was a member of the Frederiksværk under-12 side when Frank coached the team. He was clearly a good footballer, so Frank and Olsen’s father helped him think big - by drawing up a mock contract for a future move to Barcelona. “It was handwritten,” says Olsen. “It was my contract for a move to Barca if they ever came in for me - which unfortunately never happened!”
That’s not the point. The point was that Frank made a 12-year-old footballer believe that anything was possible. A skill he’ll need at Spurs next season. While coaching Frederiksværk’s age group sides, Frank also introduced ‘The Trick of the Week’ and, as an indication of his focus on the development of the club as a whole, he devised ‘The Red Thread’.
“These were basically the guidelines for youth football across the club,” says Olsen.
A lot has happened in the intervening period, but the qualities that served Frank so well in his formative years, and still very much in evidence, on and off the pitch.
“Six months ago, I visited Thomas with my father and the rest of the family,” says Olsen. “As Thomas himself said, his two biggest matches are "the billion-dollar match for promotion to the Premier League at Wembley against Swansea in 2021" and "the match for the Zealand Championship at Frederiksværk Stadium against Brøndby". A match we won 2-0 under his management!
Frank with Olsen and his father on their recent trip to London
“Of course, he meant that with a wink. But he remembers it completely. During our visit, it was as if nothing had changed. Thomas is still the same, with his feet planted firmly on the ground. Definitely a quality that he has brought with him from Denmark and Frederiksværk.”
Frank has learned from the best over the course of his career, not least from Lis Westberg, the former captain of the Danish women’s side that won the first unofficial Women’s World Cup in Mexico in 1971 and Morten Olsen, the legendary former Denmark midfield and manager of the Danish national team for 15 years between 2001 and 2016.
Indeed, Frank’s big break in coaching came after being included in Olsen’s national team set-up and working with the country’s under-17 and under-19 sides before taking his first major job in club football with Brondby in 2013.
Now, as he prepares for his biggest challenge - one that has proved the undoing of far bigger names in the past - he will attempt to bring the kind of culture he embedded at Brentford to a club that hasn’t been easily unified in the past.
“Culture beats everything,” said Frank on the High Performance podcast in December 2024. On it, he outlined Brentford’s ‘No dickheads’ policy and his strategy of empowering staff and players to become ‘cultural architects’. He gave special mention to captain, Christian Nørgaard, describing him as a natural leader who sets high standards. He also highlighted the contributions of Mathias Jensen, Yoane Wissa, Vitaly Janelt and Ben Mee.
Now, to a certain extent, he’s starting from scratch again. But like a CEO arriving at a new business, he’ll have mapped out his first 100 days. And if he stumbles across any dickheads in the meantime? “They’ll have to leave,” was the answer he gave in the podcast. And given the relationship he already seems to have built with Levy and Spurs’ chief executive, Vinai Venkatesham, they look set to back him 100% should that situation arise.
In the meantime, there will be a hasty, but reluctant, swapping of Brentford for Spurs shirts back home in Denmark.
“He remembers where he comes from and the people who were previously part of his life,” says Olsen. “In our family we all became Brentford fans, but now we have to stick with Tottenham. I have a hope that Thomas will one day come to Germany and Bayern Munich, but that may well remain a dream.”
In football you have to dream big. Particularly when you’re from such a small town originally. And if Frank does end up at the Allianz Arena, it will be because his latest adventure has gone well, rather than badly.