It is easy to see why Thomas Frank might rub a couple of rivals up the wrong way this season. The Brentford head coach’s confidence, fuelled by an implicit trust in the club’s processes, can often mistakenly come across as arrogance. It is not intended that way but for opposition supporters, among them Leeds and Swansea in the past two seasons, the Dane’s unwavering belief is triggering.
Yet the 46-year-old’s absence of doubt has been given ultimate justification by Brentford reaching the Premier League for the first time. There will not be a shift in ethos over the coming months. A club that lacked financial resources compared to many of its competitors in the second tier, nevermind at the big table, will remain true to their principles and transfer business so far indicates no risk of them replicating many who have followed before by overspending on talent only to realise when it is too late that the players signed are unable to work as a unit.
Defender Kris Ajer has arrived from Celtic for a fee of about £14m, along with midfielders Frank Onyeka and Myles Peart-Harris before winger Yoane Wisser joined from Lorient in midweek. More crucial is that for the first time in many years none of their key assets, most notably top scorer Ivan Toney, have been prised away.
Final responsibility for recruitment rests with co-directors of football Rasmus Ankersen and Phil Giles but Frank’s involvement is hands-on and it was interesting to hear him speak on Wednesday in relation to Wisser and the need for attacking depth. The Congolese international is likely to feature predominantly out wide but expect some time at No10 or "as a striker-ish" depending on the situation.
That first Premier League pre-match press conference featured a typically amusing Frank line about the Bees living up to their nickname - "We are a bumble bee, we're not designed to fly but we've been still able to fly into the Premier League and we'll do everything we can to keep flying as high as possible" - and for those not overly familiar it is worth keeping a close eye on his performance in front of the cameras.
Frank has that ability to light up a room when he enters and few head coaches are as open when it comes to the media. If many of his contemporaries are guarded over their tactical approach, Frank is more often than not willing to divulge a level of detail that makes even seasoned observers realise their knowledge of how the game is really played is not as fluent as they might think.
Beyond that there are plenty of laughs, metaphors that do not always work and an ability to tug on heartstrings when the time is right. Although it ended in heartache with the defeat to Fulham at Wembley, his emotional deliveries during the final days of Griffin Park in the summer of 2020 was enough to stir the most hardened cynics.
Those media engagements arguably detract from his ability as a coach. Frank must bristle inside when asked about the club’s analytics approach, a tired fascination from those who are yet to recognise that the numbers are only one pillar of a club that so far has been run with a shrewdness to make many of their rivals blush.
Tactically, he is proactive rather than reactive. The switch to a back three in mid-April led to a run of five wins and two draws that provided the momentum for their play-off success. The shift was built around Christian Norgaard moving into the defence and offered an added layer of control at a point when the campaign was running the risk of hitting a wall.
Having watched Frenkie De Jong drop into Barcelona’s defence for their Champions League game away to Paris Saint-Germain in March, Frank immediately messaged the Denmark international Norgaard with a brainwave. They spent a couple of weeks working on the intricacies in training and hours in the video room to ensure the player was fully-equipped.
Meticulous preparation is a given but Frank’s emotional intelligence is equally important. He has imbued the players with a sense of greater responsibility, treating them like humans rather than commodities, and a number of squad members have spoken about how his personal touch has helped develop them as men as much as footballers.
Frank never made it as a player, and has previously spoken about being hesitant in getting dirty on the training pitch as a result, but he studied sports psychology before going into youth coaching in Denmark, eventually progressing through different age groups in the national set up. In 2013 he became Brondby manager but resigned after his second season in charge because the chairman had allegedly been criticising him via a burner account on an online fans’ forum.
In December 2016 he arrived in West London, initially as an assistant coach to Dean Smith and with an eye on developing a pathway from the recently-formed B team. But when Smith left to join Aston Villa in October ‘18, Frank stepped up. Brentford won one of his first 10 games and some fans were quick to make judgments about the fit but it coincided with the passing of technical director Robert Rowan and the squad was weakened by injuries.
They ended up 11th in that first campaign with striker Neal Maupay departing in the summer to Brighton.That led to Ollie Watkins being moved in from the wing for the 2019-20 campaign as the striker formed a formidable front-three with Said Benrahma and Bryan Mbeumo that became known as the ‘BMW’. But the pandemic-delayed season ended with a play-off final defeat to Fulham with Watkins and Benrahma being sold to Smith’s Villa and West Ham United.
A renewed attempt to reach the top flight for the first time since 1946-47 was written off by some rivals and the squad barely had chance to draw breath before returning to action. But the acquisition of Toney meant the attack remained potent and Frank, through his combination of personal touch and astute tactical approach, delivered a fairytale fitting of a certain compatriot.
Now everything is about to get far more difficult. Instead of plotting a way to beat Luton, the focus is on producing game plans to get a result against Liverpool. Few outside this pocket of West London expect Brentford to survive but, with a head coach who has fully embraced the club’s identity and proven doubters wrong more than once in the past three years, a humble group that has a track record of punching above its weight can continue to ascend.And leave some bigger boys with bloodied noses.
