Jermain Defoe’s unique Thomas Frank insight speaks volumes about Spurs manager

Thomas Frank has made a fast start to life as Tottenham Hotspur manager and one-time Spurs striker Jermain Defoe isn’t surprised to see the Danish boss show his worth

Former Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe saw what Thomas Frank is capable of when sitting in on one of his Brentford training sessions and has backed the manager to thrive in North London. Frank took over from Ange Postecoglou in June, bringing one-time Spurs youth coach Justin Cochrane in as his assistant, and hit the ground running with two wins from the first two league games before a narrow defeat against Bournemouth.

“[Spurs’] squad’s strong. Obviously the [James] Maddison injury, the [Dejan] Kulusevski injury, it doesn’t help, but with this manager he’s a top, top manager,” Defoe said.

“I was lucky enough that I went into Brentford… two years ago, just to watch training and pick his brains. I was still on my A licence and he was really impressive.

“Not only that but away from football he’s such a nice guy, approachable. You go up and down the country you see coaches put on good sessions, everybody puts on good sessions, but I think managing people is so important and he does that well.

“I hope he does well. The players look really fit, sharp, but we’ll see what happens – it’s a long season.”

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Assistant manager Cochrane, who worked under Frank at Brentford, was linked with the top job at the Gtech Community Stadium before deciding to head across London. “He started at Tottenham in the academy so he’s done his work, he’s been on the grass for years,” Defoe said of Cochrane.

“Now he’s at the level where he’s a top coach. I’ve known Justin for years, obviously he went to Man United, and he had offers. He’s still doing stuff with England, so he’s got that experience and he knows what it’s about.

“I just hope they have a good season because there’s just been so much noise around Tottenham. Struggling domestically last season but winning that European trophy, obviously Daniel [Levy] leaving. It’s a big year for the club.”

Defoe was speaking alongside another former Spurs striker, Bobby Zamora, at the launch of the new Sky Bet x British Heart Foundation ‘Red Boot’ trophy. The trophy – awarded to the top scorer across the entire EFL this season – will raise £50,000 for each goal that player scores for the British Heart Foundation.

“We are both hoping there’s a couple of strikers out there who bang a load of goals, 30 odd, at least £1.5million we want donated towards the British Heart Foundation,” Zamora said. “So that’s the idea and whoever wins that will win… the trophy and have the accolade of having helped donate so much money.”

Zamora would have won the trophy twice in his playing career, hitting 28 league goals for Brighton in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons before moving to Tottenham, while Aleksandar Mitrovic’s record-breaking 43-goal 2021-22 campaign would have helped raise a whopping £2.15m. Defoe has a personal connection to the campaign, too, having been on the pitch when Bolton star Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during a 2012 FA Cup game.

“You look at some of the figures, every 90 minutes there’s six people in the UK that will suffer from a cardiac arrest,” said Defoe, who visited Muamba in hospital after that incident. “It happens a lot, we’ve seen with other players as well, so that’s what we’re trying to do, really – to create an army that can learn CPR and save lives.”

Former England stars Jermain Defoe and Bobby Zamora unveil the new Sky Bet x British Heart Foundation ‘Red Boot’ trophy – set to be awarded to the EFL’s top scorer this season, with every goal raising £50,000 to fund lifesaving CPR training and CureHeart research.