It took just two seconds or so of football to show exactly why Thomas Frank gave the green light to Tottenham making the permanent signing of Mathys Tel. The 20-year-old had drifted out to the left-hand side of the pitch in the final five minutes of the European U21 Championships quarter-final against Denmark when he received the ball from substitute Matthis Abline.

With Thomas Frank taking charge of the proceedings at Tottenham Hotspur, he is set to guide the North Londoners into a new era, one that will be beyond Ange Postecoglou’s high-speed positional approach and rather one that relies on compact structures while deploying flexible mid-blocks and putting in intelligent transitions.

W ith his feet now firmly under the desk at Hotspur Way, Thomas Frank faces a defining early task as Tottenham’s new head coach, navigating a maze of sensitive, strategic conver