Thomas Frank did little on his first appearance as Tottenham manager to quash the theory that Son Heung-min is heading for the exit.
Son will not leave before next month’s preseason tour of Asia where friendlies will be played in Hong Kong and South Korea, but the 33-year-old is in the final year of his contract with interest from Saudi Arabia and the MLS in the United States.
He has been at Spurs for a decade and is captain, although there were no guarantees about Son keeping the armband.
‘Good question, we haven’t decided anything,’ said Frank on the matter of the captaincy. ‘It will be my decision. There is a long list of – bullet points to get through and I will take them in the right order.
‘He was captain last year and when we play our two x 45 minutes tomorrow Son and Cristian Romero will be the captains.’
Tottenham are in action for the first time under their new boss in a preseason friendly at Reading on Saturday.
Current Spurs captain Son Heung-min’s future at the club remains extremely uncertain
Thomas Frank said in his first Spurs press conference that he does not know who will be his skipper yet next season
‘Right now, I have a player that is fully committed and training well,’ he added on Son and his right to be allowed to leave if he wished to after 10 years of service. ‘If a player has been at a club a long time, then there will always be a decision for the club to take of course. It’s always tricky if that happens.’
Those decisions he said would be taken in conjunction with chairman Daniel Levy and technical director Johan Lange.
‘The club will always decide in the end,’ added Frank as he fielded questions in his first press conference since he was lured across London from Brentford to replace Ange Postecoglou.
He has not, he said, spoken to Postecoglou. And was cautious on transfer matters, refusing to comment on the pursuit of Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest.
Nor did he have much to say about a failed bid for Bryan Mbeumo who is leaving Brentford for Manchester United after those clubs agreed a fee of £71million.
‘Bryan is a fantastic player,’ said Frank. ‘I’ve been with him for five years and I think he deserved a move no matter where he goes and I wish him all the best.’
The 51-year-old Dane was, however, ready to embrace targets set out by Levy for Spurs to challenge for the Premier League and Champions League titles and not simply the lesser cup competitions, such as the Europa League, which they won in May, the club’s first major trophy in 17 years.
‘I share his ambitions for the club,’ said Frank. ‘A club of this size should have that ambition. How far away we are is probably very difficult to say but we should throw it forward and go for it.
However, Frank has remained buoyant about his ambitions to win major honours at Spurs
‘No doubt that needs to be the aim for the future. What are to odds for us winning the PL this season? I’m not allowed to gamble but I think we’re probably not the favourites.
‘Probably there are three teams at least ahead of us, but we will do what we can to build a strong and competitive team.’
As for Levy’s record of sacking five managers during Frank’s time at Brentford, he smiled: ‘I like to challenge myself. I have the privilege of never being sacked before. That is one of the reasons why I took the job. I get a little bit more risk in my daily life.
‘Coming to a big club there are pressures. We need to perform because it is we. It’s me, it’s the staff the players, the staff and everyone we need to do that together.
I like the ambitions. Everything I do, every decision I have made so far is for the long term. It’s not about surviving one game or one year or 18 months or whatever the average is. It’s for the long run.’
