Frank Granted Reprieve as Hollow as Ten Hag's, While Spurs Mock the Man They Sacked

The threads are tangled beyond untangling, bound together by a single relentless theme: another stay of execution granted to postpone an unavoidable conclusion that would spare everyone involved.

Rewind to the 2024 FA Cup final at Wembley, and you'll find the seeds of Thomas Frank's doomed tenure at Spurs already sown. Never mind that the north Londoners couldn't even make it past the fourth round that tournament—it was United's performance that day which somehow convinced the powers that be to keep Ten Hag around for another five months. That single afternoon's work set the Ineos project back by years and handed United a backdoor route into the Europa League, a competition they'd reach the final of only to lose to Spurs.

That Spurs, in turn, stumbled into this season's Champions League on the back of their own trophy-winning heroics. Dominic Solanke's finish was characteristically clinical—the kind of moment even Spurs couldn't botch.

The irony is delicious: Spurs winning the Europa League while languishing 17th in the Premier League was comedy gold. Spurs potentially winning the Champions League whilst occupying that same basement spot promises to be something else entirely.

When the whistle went against Borussia Dortmund, few expected Frank to still be in the dugout come season's end. Yet here came one of his best performances to date. Dortmund's Daniel Svensson received his marching orders in the 26th minute, and what followed was a masterclass in capitalising on numerical advantage. Xavi Simons and his Dortmund colleagues were outshot by Spurs' collective efforts, though the German outfit's star put up a fight.

The crucial detail: Spurs were already ahead and the superior side before that red card arrived. They could have bottled it spectacularly from there. They didn't.

Wilson Odobert was outstanding. Solanke, starting for the first time this season, made an immediate impact. For a glorious 15-minute spell, Djed Spence's deployment on the left wing harked back to Gareth Bale's early positional reinvention.

Once Solanke added the second, Spurs managed the match with admirable control. Combined with PSG's slip-up at Sporting, Tottenham now sit fourth in the extended Champions League table despite languishing 14th domestically.

Here lies the absurdity: Frank was hired specifically for his Premier League pedigree, yet he's now orchestrating Champions League knockout football while fighting relegation. Four wins from seven Champions League matches this season. Four wins from 18 in the league. The clean sheets tally is identical in both competitions. Home victories? Decisively weighted towards European nights.

Does one competent performance against a depleted opponent genuinely erase the West Ham humiliation, the Bournemouth exposure, the Brentford ordeal? Should it?

The real kicker is watching Spurs mock the very man they deemed insufficiently charismatic. Ange Postecoglou took the stick all season for finishing 17th, his European credentials questioned relentlessly. Yet here's Frank, performing an even more audacious balancing act—precisely because he's benefited from the sort of reprieve that kept another struggling manager in place months earlier.

The circus rolls on.