Frank on mental health and the Lewis family

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Tottenham Hotspurs manager Thomas Frank on mental health and the Lewis family  26.09.25  Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK

Transcript

00:00Can I just get the latest on the players who have been away?

00:03Solanke, Kailen Mawani, anyone who's out, maybe available for this weekend?

00:07The latest is that everyone that was available for the latest Premier League game is available again.

00:20And midweek, Pavard was out shortly, as I said, was a precaution.

00:24He was good trained today, so that's positive.

00:30Kailen Mawani is just dragging on, so it's a little bit annoying to just take a few more days and he will not be available.

00:41Dom is not available, but yeah, that's the status.

00:45Are you starting to feel here now less training, game, game, game, presser, game, game?

00:52Are you starting to feel it now as the season's really clicked, ticking in?

00:55Yeah, you can say that. It's definitely been that the last four games, five games.

01:00But yeah, it's fine. It is what it is. Get on with it.

01:06Prepare, perform, win, prepare, win, perform, win. That's the plan, so yeah, fine.

01:13A lot of tough decisions you've got to make daily as a head coach.

01:16But Jao Paulinha loaned to option to potentially permanent.

01:20Could that potentially be the easiest decision you could make as Tottenham head coach?

01:24He's had a great start, hasn't he?

01:25I'm very happy with Jao. He's still done very well for us.

01:30Come in, help the team, performing well, playing centre-back and still doing well.

01:35So, really pleased with him. Yeah, very pleased with him.

01:39Finally, Thomas, the Together Against Suicide campaign starts this weekend.

01:43Every 90 minutes, someone takes their own life.

01:46How important is that we all look out for each other and what can football do to help with mental health?

01:52Yeah, I think we definitely need to help each other and look after that.

01:57That's a bad stat and there's another stat that's one in four is considering committing suicide.

02:04Which is as bad, so we need to help.

02:10I'm very happy that this campaign is going on.

02:13I know it's very important for Vinay, our CEO.

02:16I think in general, for me as well, I think suicide is the worst you can do.

02:22But before that, there's a lot of steps where you may be mentally not in a good place.

02:27And we all know it's all about speaking to people.

02:30And if you don't have anyone in your closest network, you reach out to the helpline or to a little community.

02:39Because we need to help, we need to speak, and we need to speak openly about it.

02:45Thank you very much, Thomas.

02:46Peter?

02:47Hi, Thomas.

02:48Could you just tell us how far Dominic is away from being fit then?

02:52Dominic is, you know, as I said, his ankle injury has just been a little bit tricky.

03:00It's nothing big.

03:01We are relatively positive about it will be relatively quick.

03:07How much of a selection headache is Richarlison giving you with the impending return of Dominic?

03:14It's what, three goals and one assist in his first five games of the season?

03:18Right now, it's very simple and very easy.

03:21Richie is playing and Richie is doing good.

03:24As I said, scored three goals and one assist is good numbers.

03:31So, yeah, happy with Richie.

03:33He just needs to keep building, keep adding good performances,

03:39keep arriving in the right areas in the box.

03:41So, yeah, that's positive.

03:43Another player I wanted to ask you about was Lucas, only 19 years of age,

03:47but something you said is that he takes the team with him.

03:50What's his ceiling?

03:52Good question.

03:55Hopefully, as high as possible.

03:58My finest job together with the coaches is to maximize potential,

04:03maximize potential in every player, maximize potential in the team.

04:06That's my most important task.

04:09And Lucas is a fantastic prime example of that.

04:14How can we maximize his potential?

04:16Right now, he is in a very good flow.

04:19Right now, you can just see he is full of confidence.

04:22And that's a fantastic position to be in.

04:25So, pleased with him.

04:27Also, I think he is adding more and more to his game now.

04:30He is arriving more in the box, for example, which is important.

04:33And finally, tomorrow is the start of three games in about ten days, I believe.

04:37Obviously, you want to win every game, but how much would that help getting this run of ten days off with a game and continuing your great form in the Premier League?

04:47Yeah, of course, it would be super important.

04:49We are facing a good Wolves side.

04:52I think we, of course, everyone is aware that they haven't had the best start in terms of points.

04:58When you look at their performances, they are much, much better.

05:02They are much tighter games.

05:04You can see the games they have lost, except the City game is very, super tight.

05:09So, I expect a very difficult game.

05:11This is a team that we, the last five times, haven't been able to beat.

05:16So, I think we are very fully aware that this is a team, another game in the Premier League.

05:22You can take nothing for granted.

05:23You can't be thinking you can just walk on over any opponent.

05:26So, we need to be flying out, be ready for it.

05:31With the fans behind us, they need to back us every single second of the match.

05:35But I'm very confident.

05:39I'm positive that we will go out and perform well tomorrow.

05:43Thank you so much.

05:44You're welcome.

05:45Hi Thomas, how are you?

05:46I'm good, thank you.

05:47You?

05:48Yeah, good, thank you.

05:49How easy is it to guard against the fact that your team could be overconfident against the team of bottom

05:56and have lost every game?

05:57I mean, you speak well about the fact that you have to expect a difficult game.

06:01But the stats would suggest this should be probably one of the easiest games to predict the whole weekend.

06:07That's because we always look backwards.

06:10We don't look into the next game.

06:12The next game is completely...

06:14Every game got its own life.

06:16Every game got its own story.

06:17You know, I'm always...

06:22You asked me these questions before in the past.

06:24I was thinking, is the best to face a team that's been unbeaten in ten games?

06:28Or a team that haven't won in ten games?

06:30I don't know.

06:31And I actually don't care.

06:32I just know we prepare for Wolves.

06:34We look at their strengths and the areas where we think we could potentially hurt them.

06:39And then I think our players are in a...

06:42I think it's good that our players are in a good place.

06:45They are confident, but also know that we need to work very hard.

06:49It's not going to be easy.

06:51And also, they know the stats as well.

06:53We haven't beat them the last five times.

06:55It's a busy week.

06:57You've already been asked about that.

06:59But busy for the team.

07:00But also for you.

07:01In a way, you're not used to this, are you?

07:03You're used to having a game, then a whole week with your team to prepare and to go through everything.

07:09How much are you learning on the job this season with having to play a literary game,

07:16maybe one rest day, one preparation day, and then bang, go again?

07:20You can say learning over the time of the season because having two days between games,

07:31I've probably done 100 times or something like that in my career.

07:36Three games, same, similar.

07:38But I haven't done it 300 times.

07:40But do you need to have 300 times?

07:42100 is probably enough to have your routines in terms of how you prepare the team.

07:48So, I think that's the most important thing.

07:51I think we have a very good...

07:54We, as a club, got a very good coaching group.

07:58Very good staff where we have a clear idea and process how we want to do it.

08:03But we constantly discuss the small details.

08:07So, for example, we had some that played a lot of minutes Wednesday night.

08:13They are on the second day.

08:15We still want to get a little bit out of them.

08:17Also, some that didn't play that need to get a little bit more out.

08:19So, how do we get that physical load bang on?

08:22Plus, we want to get all the details in.

08:24So, that is the ongoing discussions constantly.

08:27And there is no one fit all kind of match day minus one.

08:32It's a constant small little bit development.

08:36So, I think it's the discussions that is important.

08:39I think we have got a good framework.

08:41We want to get in and then constantly developing a bit.

08:45You've been asked about the mental health initiative and obviously Spurs greatly involved in that.

08:54Can I ask you?

08:56Sadly, the football community lost Matt Beard last weekend to suicide.

09:00And I get the impression it's much better now than it was 10, 20, 30 years ago for players who aren't feeling well and need to come out and talk to managers, coaches, whoever.

09:14What about managers?

09:15Because, I mean, you can't turn around and say, right, I'm not feeling mentally great today.

09:22I want my assistant to come and do a press conference.

09:25Or, I'm not feeling it's all getting on top of me a bit.

09:28I want my assistant to go and coach on the sidelines.

09:31Is there enough care taken for managers?

09:33And do you have someone you can go and talk to?

09:36Yeah, that's a good question.

09:37I think first and foremost is an opportunity to pay tribute to Matt Beard and his loved ones.

09:43Wives, kids, family, friends, and everyone who worked with him.

09:48And I think it's a very relevant question.

09:52I think for everyone involved in the game, you say players, of course, that's highly pressurized.

09:57But everyone feel the pressure in a different way.

10:00That can be a physio.

10:02That can be a performance member of staff.

10:04It can be everyone who's involved.

10:06And then coming back to that as a manager.

10:08For myself, I use good friends, my wife, and then others that are in the environment.

10:19So other head coaches.

10:20Because it is quite unique, I can say, job.

10:23And I also said many times before, I've got a leadership mentor that I also use.

10:28So I think that to be able to speak to others, I think, is very important.

10:33And I'm very aware you never know if that pressure, how you call it, stress hits you one day.

10:40I will say I'm quite resilient to it, but you never know.

10:43You can't neglect it.

10:45But speaking open about it, I think it's hugely important.

10:51But also understand that this is such a big world, but also a very small world.

10:57Okay?

10:58We all know each other.

10:59It's just because it's so much publicity that makes it a little bit tricky sometimes.

11:04Because I know it's the most important thing, or maybe the most important thing of not important things in life.

11:10And I think it's important to put it into perspective.

11:13You're welcome.

11:15Can I just double-check on Dom?

11:18Is he still feeling any discomfort in his ankle?

11:20It's not perfect, but we are going forward in the right direction.

11:26And there's been more kind of take-over talk.

11:28The club's rejected a third approach in the last couple of weeks.

11:32Is it strange to come to a club that kind of is in this moment of change,

11:36from one that was obviously so stable for so many years?

11:39Yeah, there's a few more questions about it.

11:42So, the short answer is yes.

11:46But I'm, you can say, to start was very stable.

11:52Daniel's been here for almost 25 years.

11:54Very easy, of course.

11:55Then the change came a little bit.

11:57Okay.

11:58Didn't expect that.

12:00But since then, the new old owners, or whatever we call it, the Lewis family,

12:05has been very transparent, very good in the way they communicated.

12:08It's very clear.

12:09The club is not for sale.

12:10Vinay on top of everything.

12:12It's very clear.

12:13So, for me personally, I feel a very stable environment going into work every day.

12:21And I also learned over a lot of years that the only thing that helps me and helps the team

12:27is that I do everything I can to focus on the team and the players.

12:31I just want to ask about Luka Williams-Barnett, obviously, since his debut.

12:34It looks like he's been involved still in first-team training.

12:36There was a video that went out.

12:37How has he been in training?

12:38He must be buzzing after making his debut.

12:40Yeah, yeah.

12:41Nuno, of course, very happy in so many ways.

12:45It's the first, I think, the first step in many things is always a very important step.

12:51But after that, there's a lot of next steps that he needs to take.

12:55But, of course, it's nice to see him getting his debut.

13:00Hi, Thomas.

13:01Just following on what Ali said, have you had many interactions with the Lewis family yet?

13:06Yeah, I think I said that one of the two or three times.

13:10We had some interactions.

13:12Yeah, definitely spoken to them.

13:13So, it's been good.

13:16Just on Kolo Mawani, how did he actually suffer the dead leg?

13:19In training, I think it was Papi that ran into him.

13:22So, I need to blame Papi.

13:25So, yeah, it's very unfortunate.

13:26It's just a contact injury.

13:28And it's one of those where sometimes they can take a week.

13:31Other times, they're always now taking a couple of weeks

13:34because it started bleeding again, unfortunately.

13:36I just wanted to ask you about Raddy Dragason as well.

13:38I think he's finally started training with the group again.

13:40How's his progress coming along?

13:42Is there any time for him?

13:44No, sorry.

13:45I was interrupting before you finished your question.

13:48He's progressing well.

13:51He's been on the grass for three weeks-ish or something like that.

13:55So, he's progressing well as he should do.

13:57We all know coming back from ACL is a longer one.

14:02So, it's on track.

14:04It will be some weeks before he's able to be involved in the squad.

14:09Hi, Thomas.

14:10Another one about the ownership, unfortunately.

14:13With the Lewis family, you've obviously spoke to them.

14:15But have you kind of had a more formal meeting with them

14:18to speak about their plans and, I guess, your plans?

14:21I mean, you spoke not long afterwards about wanting to have that meeting.

14:24I wondered, had that taken place?

14:26Or is it kind of booked up for maybe the October international break?

14:29No, no.

14:30We have had more informal chats.

14:33You know, of course.

14:35It's about football and the club and the team and all that.

14:38But the bigger plans is something we're working along with.

14:42And I think it's important to get to know each other and align everything.

14:48And I guess just with Dom, he was training early this week, wasn't he?

14:52Yeah.

14:53Is he still training or has there been sort of a setback?

14:55Is that why he's kind of...

14:56No, no.

14:57You know, because when you have that, when there is a bit of pain,

15:01it's just to see, to get it right right now.

15:05So, he's right.

15:07He wasn't on the grass today, but he was on the grass early in the week.

15:10And I guess just with him and I guess Kalomani as well,

15:14you know, Dom's not playing that for a month.

15:16Do you need to kind of build them up again when they do come back

15:20rather than them being training and then being on the bench?

15:22Is it kind of a process to get ready for the first thing?

15:25Yeah, I think the day...

15:26I think Dom has been running a lot and actually done a lot.

15:30So, he's in a fine-ish place.

15:33Of course, it'll take a few weeks to get up to a good place.

15:37And Kalomani, again, now we've been off the grass for a couple of weeks.

15:40So, it will take some weeks after that.

15:42Okay, we'll end the broadcast section there.

15:44Move on to the embargoed section.

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