Tottenham's perfect next manager choice is blatantly obvious as Ange Postecoglu sack rumours intensify

If winning the Europa League had made any difference to the odds that Tottenham Hotspur keep hold of current manager Ange Postecoglou, one assumes we’d know by now.

Instead, even though Postecoglou made the entirely valid point that any Spurs fan would have given their eye teeth for Champions League qualification and a trophy, we’re hearing stories from several different sources about Thomas Frank heading across London for interviews with Daniel Levy. It doesn’t seem as though silverware has changed the chairman’s mind…

Why Thomas Frank is a good choice to replace Ange Postecoglou at Spurs

Whether that seemingly likely decision to replace Postecoglou is the right decision or not remains to be seen. The players seem to love him, but domestic results were dire, and the injury issues only provide so many excuses.

His gruff and avuncular personality was a hit, but his tactics could be one-note and once legs started to tire – perhaps an inevitability given his heavy metal playing style – he didn’t seem to have a Plan B to get results going back in the right direction.

His late-season focus on the Europa League paid dividends, of course, but didn’t offer any evidence that he was able to balance domestic and continental campaigns. Ultimately, while his final peak was higher than that climbed by years of Spurs managers before him, it’s not so unreasonable for the club to move on.

Under such circumstances, Thomas Frank seems like an eminently sensible choice. Granted, he can’t prove that he can juggle the demands of Premier League and European competition successfully, either, but what he can put on his CV is something rare in the modern game, especially when managing a relatively small side – consistent success and stability over the course of several years.

It's now been seven years since he took charge of Brentford, and four since he won promotion to the Premier League. At no point of his tenure have his sides failed to meet or exceed expectations, at no point has morale or energy flagged for any length of time. Indeed, his longevity and capacity to sustain strong results has perhaps made many observers forget just how remarkable it is that Brentford are where they are.

This is a club that have established themselves as Premier League mainstays on a net spend of £23.9m over the last five seasons and who have one of the top flight’s smallest wage budgets. Normally, the teams with the lowest wage spends go down. This year, only Ipswich Town spent less on wages, and Brentford pushed for a European place, if ultimately unsuccessfully.

Because that’s the bar Brentford have set for a while now, people have become inured against the fact that it’s rather remarkable. Frank may be the single greatest overachiever in English top-flight coaching, and it’s accepted as normal.

Throw in the fact that his playing style is not entirely dissimilar to the one used by Postecoglou, and you have a recipe for success. For years, Spurs have lurched from coaches with one playing style to those with another with little apparent regard for long-term squad building (Mauricio Pochettino to José Mourinho being an especially egregious example), but Brentford play 4-2-3-1 with concentrated pressing, direct passing and a playmaker in the ten position.

Throw in the fact that his affable, intelligent personal style is broadly similar to that of Spurs’ current coach, and it all looks from a distance like a natural fit. If Levy really is hosting interviews with him, he may be doing something perfectly sensible. There would be adjustments to make, of course, but fundamentally there is no vast, sweeping changes to the side would be required to get it working under Frank. Of course, that doesn’t mean that sweeping changes aren’t needed for other reasons…

Why Tottenham Hotspur will only be successful if they sort out their recruitment

The argument that can be made against Frank is, perhaps, that Brentford’s success could be attributed less to their manager and more to their relentlessly impressive scouting and recruitment. They have proven that a Moneyball philosophy can work in football, and perhaps that diminishes the role of tactics and coaching to a certain degree.

To take such a standpoint would surely be to minimise Frank’s involvement to too great of an extent, and in any case, the likes of Ivan Toney, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa have surely developed because of Frank, not in spite of him. Frank has a demonstrable track record of turning raw talent into Premier League level performances, which could be handy in a squad with plenty of young players that need moulding to reach the next level like Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray.

But the real problem Spurs have is less Postecoglou or any other coach than their persistent failures to refresh the squad in the right way and at the right time. Since reaching the Champions League final under Pochettino, they have too often bought the wrong player, too late in the window, and missed out on the player they really needed while haggling over the price.

The have the money to afford some misses, even if Levy is always keen to stress the club’s financial limitations, but can’t afford to consistently have too little depth and too little starting quality at the same time. Spurs don’t need to play Moneyball to do well. They just need to be willing and able to spend on what’s really needed rather than looking for a bargain in the next aisle over.

If Levy and Spurs’ incoming transfer team (whether led by Fabio Paratici or not) don’t get their priorities both right and aligned with the manager, whoever it is, it probably won’t matter whether it’s Postecoglou or Pochettino or Frank. They will keep falling short.

Postecoglou won a trophy in spite of those failings, but didn’t have the resources to make a run at both a trophy and the top four even if he did have the know-how which, in all probability, he didn’t. But even if Frank knows everything a manager could possibly need to know to succeed at Spurs, he will still need to get hold of the players he needs, when he needs them and Spurs have to be prepared to back him.

You can bet that if those reported interviews are indeed taking place, then Frank is asking questions about transfer policy. He isn’t the type to avoid asking pointed questions of Levy and his colleagues for the sake of false politeness. How Levy answers those questions – and how he acts upon his answers – will have at least as much of an impact on Spurs’ future ass the coach they go into next season with.

But assuming they do stick to their instincts and sack Postecogou, it’s hard to imagine a cleaner, easier or seemingly more accomplished fit than Frank. He’s earned a shot at a big-budget job several times over by now – it’s time to see how he gets on outside of Brentford.