Inside Thomas Frank's plan for Tottenham revolution with help of old pal Johan Lange

Scottish Sun

5 days ago

Tottenham's new manager and sporting director's relationship revealed below
TOTT-AL RECALL Inside Thomas Frank's plan for Tottenham revolution with help of old pal Johan Lange
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THOMAS FRANK and Johan Lange shared a tiny office at Danish minnows Lyngby 20 years ago.
They are now in far more luxurious surroundings, mapping out Tottenham's bright new future at their state-of-the-art training ground.
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Tottenham's new manager Thomas Frank and sporting director Johan Lange have known each other for 20 years
And that is truly up and running with this week's £55million swoop for Mohammed Kudus, while Morgan Gibbs-White's £50million move has been put on hold for legal reasons.
Birger Jorgensen was director of football at Lyngby in the mid-2000s when he gave Frank his big break.
Lange, who coached the Copenhagen side's reserves, is now Frank's technical director at Spurs after the new boss was lured from Brentford.
Jorgensen, 60, visited them earlier this summer and prays they make a fast start to the season.
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He told SunSport: 'Both know there's a danger that they are now working together. Two former friends from the same nationality, a small country, it's a tough world.
'Even though Thomas has done a good job in the last six or seven years at Brentford, if you lose your first five games nobody will remember that.
'But, hopefully, they can succeed together because they are thinking more or less in the same way.
'They can be strategically aligned recruitment-wise and playing-wise. They are the same people as 20 years ago. Both of them deserve to be where they are now.
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Johan Lange started his managerial career as Copenhagan's assistant
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'It is one of the biggest clubs in the world and I cross all my fingers that they can succeed — especially in the beginning because then you have a chance to continue the good vibes.'
Tottenham have gone from a manager accused of never adapting his style — to one who has changed tack since his early days in coaching.
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Frank earned his move to succeed the puritanical Ange Postecoglou at Spurs after a Brentford stint where set-piece prowess and defensive solidity were key to his success.
But he was not always like that.
Frank's role was 'individual coach', a Danish FA-subsidised position working on a one-to-one basis with the club's best talent aged 16-22.
Among those was a teenage Christian Norgaard, who Arsenal have just signed from Brentford.
Jorgensen added: 'When we were working together decades ago, we were never talking set-pieces, it wasn't a part of football.
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Thomas Frank established Brentford as a solid Premier League team
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Spurs signed Frank from Brentford after paying his £10million release clause
'We were never talking about defending out of possession — we wanted to have the ball all the time.
'Thomas has definitely changed that part at Brentford. He is very focused on set-pieces, for and against, and very focused on the transition, defending and all that kind of stuff.
'I brought Thomas and Johan to Lyngby because I believed they had the same mentality - curious, hard-working, good people
Jorgensen
'The game changed and he adapted when he was in the big leagues.
It's because Thomas and Johan are smart people. They sniff what is going on inside football.'
The individual coach role is something Frank and Lange have introduced this summer at Spurs, with ex-RB Leipzig and Rangers man Cameron Campbell taking the position.
Frank and Lange were heavily influenced by Lyngby's first-team manager Kasper Hjulmand, the Denmark coach that lost to England in the Euro 2020 semi-finals.
Other staff members also made their name further down the line.
The Under-19s boss Niels Frederiksen has just won the Polish top flight with Lech Poznan.
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Frank is about to start pre-season training with Spurs
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Spurs sacked Ange Postecoglou 16 days after lifting the Europa League final
Jorgensen continued: 'Nobody knew that group of individuals would succeed later on in a number of different ways.
'For small money, we found it interesting to work and inspire each other, play some good football, make some good scouting.
'We always said, 'serious people with a social life', in that period.
'We enjoyed each other's company and enjoyed the life.
'I brought Thomas and Johan to Lyngby because I believed they had the same mentality — curious, hard-working, good people. They were fantastic together.
'In Denmark, we don't have big ambitions to run a Premier League team. If you asked Johan and Thomas back then, I don't think they would have believed they could go so far.
'I don't think we would have said they would go to Premier League clubs back then — maybe big clubs in Denmark. But later on, why not?
'Because they are both skilful, hard-working, clever, good at working with people and strategic.'
Frank honed his communication and motivational skills at Lyngby before moving on to coach Denmark Under-17s in 2008.
As well as Norgaard, Frank helped mould striker Yussef Poulsen.
Jorgensen said he was 'not such a skilful player back then' but is now 'a big shot' at RB Leipzig.
Lange, 45, is a transfer power- broker now, but he was on the training pitch then, before returning in 2013 as Lyngby's manager.
That followed a brief spell as Stale Solbakken's assistant at Wolves a year prior.
He later moved into a recruitment role at Copenhagen before taking similar jobs at Aston Villa and now Spurs.
Having an old pal in such a prominent position should help Frank to get used to his new surroundings.
But both need only look at the rapid turnover of managers and executives under chairman Daniel Levy to know their friendship will count for nothing if they do not deliver results.