Inside Thomas Frank's first Tottenham transfer window and that failed Morgan Gibbs-White move

Thomas Frank will step into the dugout at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday afternoon for the first time as Spurs head coach.

It will mark the beginning of Tottenham's Premier League season yet the start of Frank's adventure at the north London club came before he even knew he had the job.

The Spurs hierarchy seemed set on relieving Ange Postecoglou of his duties at the end of last season due to poor showings in the league, only for a groundswell of support to grow behind the Australian after he ended the 17-year wait for a trophy with the Europa League triumph.

The club waited for the emotions of that night in Bilbao and the subsequent parade through N17 in front of an estimated 220,000 supporters to die down before making their final decision based on all factors and eventually they stuck to their original thinking.

Postecoglou was sacked, his compatriot and the club's chief football officer Scott Munn was placed on gardening leave and Tottenham's hierarchy, including chairman Daniel Levy, new CEO Vinai Venkatesham and technical director Johan Lange pushed on with the process of appointing a new head coach.

Spurs used data modelling to identify 50 coaches that would suit what they were looking for, including a number of hypothetical candidates that they knew would not be available in order to ensure a full and worthwhile detailed comparison matrix.

To ensure the best possible chance of avoiding mistakes of the past, they drew up a list of 10 criteria for prospective candidates, including a track record of playing attractive football, developing young players and good communication skills with the media as just three of them.

When all of the criteria were taken into account, it resulted in a shortlist of four candidates for the position. All of the prospective quartet held meetings with the club and 51-year-old Frank, who was initially contacted just days after the final game of Spurs' season, was the unanimous choice of the board and Lange.

Talks then took place between the Dane and Brentford, all while Frank was embarking on his summer plans, which included a road trip to Denmark with his wife Nanna, time in Spain with his mother and sister and then after the announcement of his Spurs' appointment, a huge party back in his homeland with 50 of his closest friends which had been pre-planned before any of the Tottenham developments occurred.

One key thing for Spurs was that they needed to know Frank understood the scale of the job he was about to walk into. The scrutiny of life at the north London outfit was far removed from anything he would have experienced at Brentford.

Take something as simple as his morning exercise. Frank would often go out for early runs in his local area while boss of the Bees. That will no longer be a thing he can do as his profile grows and a run around Victoria Harbour in the heat of Hong Kong during Spurs' summer tour in July might be one of the last times the sweat-covered Dane was able to do that in public.

Frank now runs around the club's Hotspur Way training ground, inside its walls, and uses the gym there each morning with some of the staff, pushing each other in that competitive way sports people do.

Lange and Frank ensured his coaching staff would make up for his lack of experience in European competition, with only a handful of Europa League qualifying matches to his name around 10 years ago.

It was on the tour to Asia that Frank realised the scale of the club and its global fanbase of millions.

He immediately had to deal with the Son Heung-min situation. The Dane had called a number of Tottenham's senior players in the days after being given the job and the South Korean star was the only one who made it clear that he wanted to leave the club.

Frank's way of dealing with the departure of the Premier League icon and Spurs captain has been to his credit this summer, drawing praise from inside and outside the club as well as from Son himself.

The new head coach's communication style since arriving at the club has been the subject of some discussion within its walls.

He brings with him an openness and positive approach, something shared by his coaching staff. After the tough times last season inside a beaten down squad that felt put upon by circumstances at every turn, with injuries and the 'obstacles' Cristian Romero spoke of in his goodbye to Postecoglou, a positive approach has been no bad thing after the grind of the previous campaign.

One of the consistent things you'll hear about Frank is "he's just a good human being". That's not to say the new man is all sunshine and smiles. He can fix you with a stern glare in an instant and Yves Bissouma has already found that the Dane's non-negotiables, including time-keeping, cannot be...well negotiated.

The Mali international's frequent tardiness cost him his place in the Super Cup squad, his third summer in a row of disappointing a head coach before the season began. It will likely end up being Bissouma's last summer at the club.

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Those who might think that after Postecoglou's well-known style of speaking only in key moments to individuals, the conversational Frank would be a chatterbox in comparison to all of his players should think again.

Some inside the Spurs squad have spoken to the Dane individually in longer moments, including a number of those senior players, but some players are believed to have mostly dealt with his coaching staff since his arrival, only getting brief moments of conversation with Frank in his first five weeks in charge.

That's not entirely unusual among Premier League managers, especially with such a large squad to deal with, but there are certainly some players who are unsure exactly what Frank thinks of them at this point. Perhaps that is part of the plan to keep certain players on their toes.

All of the players have enjoyed the new training sessions so far, which are packed with detail with plenty of focus on defending, although those 1km runs in the heat have certainly left their impact.

Justin Cochrane and Matt Wells, close friends and highly-rated coaches who know Spurs inside out, have been drawing up plenty of interesting sessions with Frank to help build the structure required in the team.

Andreas Georgson's set-piece and restart work has already paid quick dividends, and those situations are among the "low hanging fruit" Ben Davies spoke of this summer that can improve Spurs.

The blocking drills for all players have also brought immediate results in the games in Frank's first five weeks with players trained to react quickly to put their bodies on the line to stop shots in front of goal.

On the subject of bodies, injuries have not been exclusive to the Postecoglou era. Frank has lost Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie, Manor Solomon, new arrival Kota Takai and of course James Maddison this summer, the latter for much of the coming season. He already had Dejan Kulusevski, Radu Dragusin and Bryan Gil on the long-term injury list when he joined.

There is a belief within Tottenham that the load on the players was not managed correctly during last summer's pre-season, especially with players coming back from their Copa America and Euros exploits, and that was a major problem that seeped into the season with the extreme style of play under Postecoglou.

On the medical side, football.london reported last month that Tottenham's director of performance services Adam Brett and head of sports science Nick Davies had both left the club after only a year, Davies tipped with moving to Everton.

Spurs are in the process of looking for two new heads of department for that big picture stuff, with the day-to-day running of the medical side believed to not be impacted.

Another key aspect of Frank's first summer has been the transfers, both in those made and those missed.

There is an acceptance within Spurs that the uncertainty around Postecoglou's future impacted transfer activity out of the gate. Then in Frank's early weeks behind the scenes, comparisons were drawn to Arne Slot's first few months at Liverpool in working out his new squad's strengths and weaknesses before committing to bringing new faces in.

Mathys Tel's loan was made permanent before Takai was signed as a prospect from Japan. Then Spurs made their first big move with the £55million signing of Mohammed Kudus from West Ham.

It was meant to be a £115million double signing across 48 hours with Tottenham thinking they were about to sign Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest. Frank had wanted the midfielder for years at Brentford and Spurs had also tracked him for some time.

Frank felt that his mobility and creativity as a number 10 would be perfect for his new-look Tottenham side and it was a deal Spurs felt they could make happen.

The north London club made a £60million bid for the England midfielder that appeared to have triggered a release clause in his contract, with it having been made clear to them that the 25-year-old was keen to join and play Champions League football.

Those within Spurs claim a call was put in to Forest ahead of the bid being officially lodged to ensure they were properly informed. Everything seemed to be in place and Gibbs-White told close friends that he was due to depart down to London for the medical.

However, he would never end up leaving Nottingham after the Midlands club and their owner Evangelos Marinakis made it clear to him and his representatives just how unhappy they were with what had happened.

Forest felt there had been an illegal approach and that what they claimed was a confidential release clause had been disclosed. Legal action was threatened and suddenly everything was up in the air as all sides looked into their options.

In the days ahead, Spurs are understood to have made a second bid for Gibbs-White, this time higher than the release clause, with Forest once again called ahead of the offer to inform them it was coming.

Gibbs-White did everything by the book with Nuno Espirito Santo's side, returning to pre-season training on time and working hard. Yet all along Tottenham were assured that the player remained keen on the move and there was a confidence that the transfer would be sealed eventually even if it took a little while.

Then suddenly out of the blue Spurs got wind that a new contract had been agreed with Forest. A video was duly released of Gibbs-White thanking "Mr Marinakis", who stood beside him on a pitch in Portugal, for a new three-year club record contract that would make him Forest's top earner.

Spurs were left flabbergasted and experienced people within the north London club admitted privately that they had never experienced a situation like it, with claims that the decision could not have been a financial one.

Frank and the Tottenham hierarchy were said to be disappointed at the situation and Gibbs-White is believed to have personally contacted the new Spurs head coach to apologise for how things played out, with the Dane telling him he had nothing to apologise for.

The north London club had to push on without the Dane's ideal number 10 at the top of their list.

In other positions Spurs looked at some of the players he had worked with at Brentford. They showed interest in Christian Norgaard but Arsenal had already made their move by that point and instead Tottenham eventually moved to bring in Joao Palhinha on loan from Bayern Munich with an option to buy the 30-year-old Portuguese.

Bryan Mbeumo was wanted by Frank but had set his sights on a switch to Manchester United. Interest in Yoane Wissa could not be taken further with Spurs already having both Richarlison and Dominic Solanke as striker options.

During the club's tour to Asia, Frank continued to assess his squad and identified that he needed another centre-back as well as that number 10, due to concerns over Romero and Micky van de Ven's availability in recent seasons, with the Dane set to play with a back three at times so needing more bodies.

After Son finally made the move to LAFC, the new Spurs boss made it clear to the hierarchy that another winger was required to add more guile and creativity to the wings.

Frank loved the idea of Savinho at Manchester City for that role when Tottenham got wind that Pep Guardiola might be willing to let the 21-year-old leave if the Citizens received a big enough offer and that the Brazilian, who has plenty of experience for his age, was keen to make the move to ensure regular football in a World Cup year.

For the number 10 role, Spurs have held a long-time interest in Eberechi Eze and when Arsenal appeared to cool their interest and there were indications the player was happy to work with Frank and play Champions League football, Tottenham started to formulate their move.

There is a feeling among some analysts that while Eze does not have the physical data Gibbs-White does, the 27-year-old England international does possess that bit of magic that could unlock opponents either through the centre or out wide. Eze is represented by CAA Base, who have a strong presence within Tottenham and a long-standing relationship with Levy. The company handled Son's big MLS move this summer.

Tottenham will try to tie up a deal for both players in the days ahead to ensure a major double dose of quality for Frank's squad and a much-needed increase in transfer spending to the sums splashed out by their rivals.

New contracts are also set to follow for Djed Spence and Rodrigo Bentancur among others as Frank builds the team he wants to move forward with as future departures will occur before the window closes.

Wednesday evening's penalty shoot-out loss to PSG in the Super Cup was disappointing in its outcome but also justified a lot of the training the Spurs players have been put through this summer.

All eyes are now on the game against Burnley to see how a Frank side deals with a team that sits back, particularly at a time when Spurs are lacking creativity and fresh key players after those midweek exploits. Parallels will be drawn to last season and how the new man deals with his first schedule test.

The challenge has only just begun though for Thomas Frank and this job at Spurs will be like nothing he has ever experienced before. It all starts at 3pm on Saturday afternoon in front of 62,000 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

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