Thomas Frank laughs at Bryan Mbeumo transfer question and gives unconvincing Solanke update

Thomas Frank could only let out a laugh and a rueful grin when asked whether he would have liked to signed Bryan Mbeumo for Tottenham this summer.

The 26-year-old Cameroon international has just been named as the Premier League Player of the Month and will come up against Frank, the man who managed him at Brentford for six years, on Saturday lunch-time as a Manchester United player.

That rueful grin from Frank may well have been because football.london understands Mbeumowas one of a number of Brentford players the Dane spoke to over the summer after making the move across London to join Tottenham. However, the attacker, like his former captain Christian Norgaard, already had his sights set on one move. Norgaard would join Arsenal and Mbeumo signed for United in a deal that could eventually be worth £71million to Brentford.

"He is a very good player. He’s playing for Man United, and I’m very happy for him," Frank said with that laugh and grin.

The Dane played a key role in developing Mbeumo into the Premier League star he now is after signing him as a teenager from French Ligue 2 side Troyes.

"When you work with a player for six years, you get a close relationship. To see him develop from being a young man, 19-years-old when he moved to London and left six years later, going into one of the biggest clubs in the world with all that focus and the way he stepped up," he said.

"For me, looking from the outside, maybe a little bit biased, I think he's been their best offensive player. He can create, he can score, he works hard, he's a team player. He's the perfect example of a player who is confident but humble. He's a top player."

He added: "He’s close to being the complete winger. He’s got pace, he can dribble, he can cross the ball, he can score goals, he can arrive in the last line, he works incredibly hard. He’s a good team player."

"I think he will have fantastic success there. I hope that for him, not tomorrow, but in general I wish him all the best."

Frank will be looking to use the same methods he employed to develop Mbeumo on his Tottenham players, including last season's top scorer Brennan Johnson.

"Of course it’s about winning, putting a team out there that can win, but my mindset has always been to develop people," said the 52-year-old.

"Let’s say with Brennan, it’s about how does he be more positive? What is his position when we build-up? How does he arrive in the box? How is his link-up play? Does he work hard enough?

“That’s conversations, that’s video clips, that’s feedback, constant feedback day in, day out."

Despite his 18 goals last season, including the winner against United in the Europa League final in May, Johnson has found himself in and out of Frank's starting line-up.

"First of all, I’ve got 20 players, I can only play 11, then we need some that need to come off the bench. This year we are hoping to play more than 60 games, that’s a lot of games. So that's one thing," said the Tottenham coach.

"In Brennan’s case, I think he is very aware of all his strengths. He’s got something that is extremely important, the ability to score goals," said Frank. "Then arriving in the box and also on the counters, that’s a super strength of his.

"So there are a lot of bits I like from him. He is good at producing crosses and playing on the side, he’s tactically a clever player."

One forward Thomas Frank cannot call upon to face United is Dominic Solanke. The England international is yet to start a match this season and has missed the past two-and-a-half months with an ankle injury that has dogged him since the summer. The 28-year-old eventually had to have a minor procedure at the end of September but is yet to return.

Spurs are set to arrange a training ground friendly during the international break next week which will give centre-back Radu Dragusin a first chance of some match action 10 months on from his ACL injury and Frank was asked if Solanke could appear as well in the behind-closed-doors.

"Most likely not," admitted the Dane.

Frank was then asked whether the Tottenham supporters could at least expect to see Solanke back in action before the end of the year.

"Er, I do hope so. I would say let’s see what happens after the international break," said the Spurs boss. "We are still going steps forward. It’s on track so far."

Frank had earlier told football.london: "I think the international break will be the big deciding factor because we have two weeks there to push in the next steps. As I say, it's going forward. It was clear that he was not ready before the international break. It's more, we look after the international break, that's what we're aiming for. I think we always want to get it right, but I think it's important to get it right so he's out there, can help the team and we need him back."

Another Tottenham player found himself on the receiving end of strong criticism from Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher this week and that was Joao Palhinha. The Portuguese has been a big success at Spurs since arriving this summer as the team's defensive anchor man in the midfielder, but has also weighed in with four goals and two assists at the other end of the pitch from his 17 appearances so far.

Carragher said after the defeat to Chelsea: "A worry would be, one of [Frank's] first signings is Palhinha. Now, he is not capable, I don’t think, of doing this [breaking the lines]. There was a reason why players and teams in the Premier League didn’t buy him from Fulham, and there’s a reason why Bayern Munich bought him and didn’t play him, so that would be a worry."

Frank claimed he was not aware of the former Liverpool defender's criticism of his midfielder but defended the 30-year-old Bayern Munich loanee regardless.

"Every player has strengths and weaknesses. I think Palhinha has been in many ways extremely good for us, in many ways exactly what we needed. I think he’s been a big part of making the team more competitive and solid," he said. "Not only when the sun is shining, but also on a rainy day and there are unfortunately a few rainy days in a season, or 30 minutes, or tough games where you can 100 per cent rely on, those that do the job, defend fantastically.

"He also brings that competitive attitude to the squad and the players, his team-mates. I think he’s our second top scorer, which is not bad either so he does something good offensively. Maybe he is not playing the most balls through the lines compared to other midfielders, but that’s not his role. If you want one that can do everything, there are very, very few of them out there. So you need to try to build the team so we have a little bit of everything in it and that’s what we’re trying. So in general I’m very happy with Joao."

Spurs have a £26.2million (30million euros) option to buy the Portuguese at the end of the season and Frank was asked whether he was keen for that to be taken up.

"We are very happy with Joao right now in every aspect. What will happen in the summer, we will see in the summer," he said. "Right now, I’m three months into my time here and we are building something, and I’m very happy with Joao."

With all the teams bunched together in the Premier League table, the Tottenham boss believes that United's lack of European football will hand them an advantage over their rivals this time around.

"The Premier League this season is the most competitive I’ve seen," he said. "This is my fifth year here and there’s so little between the teams. If I see the other games, I heard Slot talk about the Villa game, small margins in that game as well, the momentum change in games - it’s very, very competitive.

"No doubt it’s an advantage [for United not to be in Europe]. I said from the beginning we want to be able to compete in both because of where we want to be, we need to be able to perform in the Champions League and still perform in the league.

"There’s no two ways about it. That’s for the fans, the status, the money, the ambition, what we want to achieve, but to have a week to prepare for a game, to have the freshness, that means something."