Thomas Frank defended Tottenham’s decision to sell Brennan Johnson after he watched Mohammed Kudus limp off in a 1-1 draw with Sunderland where they lacked attacking firepower.
Frank this week gave the green light to sell last season’s 18-goal hitman Johnson to Crystal Palace for a £35million fee, which is a reduction on the £47.5m Spurs paid for him in 2023.
It is a move that has raised eyebrows given Johnson’s finishing ability and Spurs’ lack of cutting edge, but the 24-year-old has largely played second fiddle to Kudus this season.
However, Kudus was forced off in the 19th minute with a left leg injury against Sunderland.
Even though Ben Davies rewarded Tottenham’s strong first-half with a 30th-minute goal, they failed to kick on and, with limited attacking options, Frank watched Sunderland level with 10 minutes left through Brian Brobbey.
“We lacked a little extra freshness. I looked at some teams last night. They just put three players on like for like,” Frank started before he fielded a flurry of questions on Johnson.
“You know, decisions are made and decisions I’m backing in every aspect. There’s always more bigger picture stuff to some of those decisions. Sometimes it can look like perfect timing. Sometimes it looks like not so perfect timing.”
Asked if it was a risk, Frank pointed out: “I think it’s very important [to say] we took the decision before Mo got injured.
“We don’t know how that looks like, so I think that’s one thing and sometimes when you take that decision, sometimes you can’t delay them if you want to for example.
“Sometimes, you know, the decisions make more sense further down the line and now there was an opportunity to sell a player, which the club hasn’t been that good at in the past.
“And sometimes that window can be small, if you want to do that.
“You can say that if we had Xavi (Simons) and Mo for today, then I think we have enough but now we, for this game, didn’t have them. Mo only for what 10 minutes? So, there’s just some games where you’re very light and that happens for teams.”
Frank did acknowledge Tottenham would try to bring in reinforcements, adding: “We are really, how can you say, alert. The club really want to see what we can do to strengthen the squad and the team.”
Opposite number Regis Le Bris acknowledged his team were fortunate to have the chance to fight back after a poor first half in north London.
“We had a lack of energy and just 1-0 down it was possible to switch on. Probably we are a bit lucky because in a Premier League game, when you don’t play at your best, you should be punished and it wasn’t the case, so we were still alive,” Le Bris said.
“We say just switch on, do simple things well because tactically we were OK and it was just a question to be more composed on the ball.
“We had the character and quality to switch on. I think it’s positive.”
