The common theme with Thomas Frank at Tottenham Hotspur this season has been a new manager with no ideas, no ambition, and no willingness to give the young players a chance. Spurs supporters cannot help but feel they were sold a false bill of goods with Frank from Brentford, as he has done literally the opposite of everything the fans were told he would do when management hired him to replace the popular Ange Postecoglou.
Whereas Big Ange brought a European trophy, Frank looks like he's putting Spurs on a trajectory to finish just as poorly in the Premier League while playing less attractive football and coming nowhere close to bringing home real silverware.
Frank's mistreatment of Xavi Simons has been the big topic of discussion over the past week, as he benched him in three important games - which Spurs roundly lost. But Simons's situation has shrouded another young player getting snubbed - and one who had actually been playing well.
Mathys Tel has a lot of promise
Mathys Tel was signed permanently from Bayern Munich after showing enough individual quality and love for the badge in six months last season en route to a Europa League trophy. This season, Tel has taken his lumps, but after getting flak from both fans and Frank, he scored important goals in a win over Leeds and a draw against Manchester United.
A striker or left winger, Tel has outplayed several attacking teammates this season, including Richarlison. And yet Frank has continued to start the horrendous Richy, eschewing Tel completely, even after his strong performance against a top club in Man United.
Tel has not started for Tottenham since a poor showing against Aston Villa, which was a follow up to his goal and brilliant display against Leeds. As with Simons, Tel is a case of Frank discarding a young player completely at a sign of struggle, neglecting the fine work he did previously.
Like Simons, Tel is a great athlete and technician who has legitimate world class upside, which is more than can be said about the majority of Spurs attackers right now. He needs games. Yet instead of giving him chances to grow on a team that is losing anyway, Frank is giving him scraps to feed on - one minute here, 10 minutes there.
It's so hard to build a basis and to get young players to buy in when this is what you are doing as a manager. Tel has done everything right in terms of fighting adversity, backing the manager, and working hard for the team. And Frank rewards him via punishment. It is far too cruel.