Tottenham 'set' to 'complete' Frank deal as Ornstein reveals reason for 'hold up' amid 'awkward roadblock'

According to reports, Tottenham Hotspur are ‘set to complete’ a deal to appoint Brentford boss Thomas Frank after ‘hitting an awkward roadblock’.

Frank quickly emerged as the frontrunner to replace Ange Postecoglou after Spurs announced the former head coach’s inevitable exit earlier this month.

It was widely reported that the former Celtic boss would be sacked ‘regardless’ of the Europa League outcome, with their win over Manchester United deemed not enough to save his job after Tottenham finished 17th in the Premier League.

Once his exit was formalised, Spurs stepped up their interest in Frank after also being linked with Marco Silva, Oliver Glasner and Andoni Iraola.

Earlier this week, a report revealed that Frank had reached an ‘agreement’ with Spurs, who still needed to come to terms with Brentford for the Danish head coach, who has a £10m release clause.

READ: Thomas Frank sack incoming as Spurs and football are stupid, mate

On Thursday, a report from talkSPORT revealed Spurs had ‘hit an awkward roadblock’ in talks with Brentford and this centred on the ‘tug-of-war’ over highly-rated coach Justin Cochrane.

Brentford ‘wanted’ to keep Cochrane and even ‘shortlisted’ him as a potential replacement for Frank, who has been pushing for the coach to follow him to Spurs.

Shortly after this update emerged, The Athletic’s David Ornstein revealed Spurs are ‘set’ to ‘complete’ a deal for Frank as they are ‘to seal the appointment after managing to secure the highly-rated Justin Cochrane as his assistant’.

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The Athletic’s report adds:

‘Spurs agreed terms with Frank following thehttps://www.football365.com/news/man-utd-tottenham-blow-mbeumo-four-reasons-transfer-will-get-done departure of Ange Postecoglou and contacted Brentford earlier this week to hold talks relating to compensation and staff. ‘The deal was held up by the situation of Cochrane, who Brentford wanted to keep and had admiration from elsewhere — but he decided to join Tottenham.’

Frank could also be joined at Tottenham by a Brentford player as the north London club are interested in Bryan Mbeumo.

Ex-Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara has explained why he thinks Mbeumo should be Frank’s “first order of business”.

“Thomas Frank’s first order of business should be to hijack Bryan Mbeumo’s move to Manchester Utd,” O’Hara said.

“Tottenham need to do everything they can to get Mbeumo off United’s hands and reunite him with Frank; he’d be an unbelievable signing, he has everything Spurs need.

“The current squad and players aren’t good enough to compete for Europe with the likes of Newcastle and Aston Villa. The target for next season should be getting back into the top six and giving the fans good football to watch every week. Structured formations and organised football have been missing for the last two seasons, and that’s what Spurs need if they’re to challenge in the top half of the table.

“Frank is a proven Premier League manager; he gets the best out of players. This is his time to step up and compete at a big club. He’s an honest manager, a good person and carries a lot of respect in the footballing industry. I think he’s a great appointment and it shows courage from Daniel Levy. The easy option was to keep Ange in the job, and we would’ve seen the same story play out as Erik ten Hag and Man Utd.”

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