Thomas Frank’s new-look Tottenham first-team staff: Who does what?

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Winning the Europa League was a huge moment for Tottenham Hotspur. On May 23, the first-team squad paraded the trophy through the streets of north London in front of thousands of emotional supporters who were united by a first piece of silverware in 17 years.

But two months after those jubilant scenes along Tottenham High Road, nearly all of the coaching staff who masterminded that famous victory in Bilbao have gone. Ange Postecoglou was sacked two weeks later and replaced by Thomas Frank. Assistant coaches Nick Montgomery, Mile Jedinak and Sergio Raimundo departed at the same time. Ryan Mason left to take the West Bromwich Albion job last month, and goalkeeping coach Rob Burch left at the beginning of this week, which means Matt Wells is the only survivor.

There has been significant change within the medical department too, as director of performance services Adam Brett and head of sports science Nick Davies have both left.

Frank has brought five staff members from Brentford with him. Fabian Otte, Andreas Georgson and Cameron Campbell are external hires. Stuart Lewis and Dean Brill have been promoted from the academy. In less than 60 days, Spurs’ backroom staff has completely changed and increased in size.

So, who are all these new faces and how will they complement each other?

Justin Cochrane, who supported Frank for three years at Brentford and is part of Thomas Tuchel’s England staff, will plan the training sessions and primarily work with the attacking players. Wells will remain in charge of the defence. He could be spotted in the warm-ups before matches last season leading the back four through defensive drills.

Head of performance Chris Haslam will lead the physical part of training. He can be spotted running alongside the players in the video below as they take part in a one-kilometre test on the first day of pre-season. They had to run the length of the pitch multiple times and complete the distance as quickly as possible. Joe Newton has followed Frank from west London too. Newton is a coach-analyst who will provide a link between the two groups.

Georgson spent last year as Manchester United’s set-piece coach, a role he previously held at Southampton, Arsenal and Brentford. He worked at Brentford during the 2019-20 season when Frank led them to a third-place finish in the Championship but they lost the play-off final to Fulham. He also spent a year as technical director of Swedish side Malmo.

Spurs did not have a specialist set-piece coach last season but Montgomery could often be seen giving players instructions from the touchline at corners and free kicks. Georgson’s official title is assistant coach but set pieces and restarts, which include kick-offs and throw-ins, will fall under his remit. Brentford scored straight from kick-off in three consecutive games last season, including in a 3-1 defeat to Spurs in September.

Georgson will be responsible for looking after the team’s culture too. During Frank’s time at Brentford, this task fell to Kevin O’Connor. The former midfielder would organise team-bonding events including go-karting, axe-throwing and clay-pigeon shooting. He also ran an event at their training ground which was inspired by speed-dating.

“The plan was to get everyone in front of each other and say two non-football-related facts about yourself,” O’Connor told The Athletic in January. “Then we had a small competition to see who could remember the most. It’s just to get people talking. Thomas absolutely loved it. At one point, he was talking to the cleaner. It’s good fun and I’m just trying to think of ways to keep the staff engaged.”

Campbell is the most interesting addition because he has been appointed to the newly created role of first-team individual development (IDP) coach. Campbell started his career as an intern in Aberdeen’s academy and spent four years with them before he joined the Right to Dream academy, who are based in Ghana and have a partnership with Denmark’s Nordsjaelland. Although Mohammed Kudus, who Spurs are close to signing after agreeing terms with West Ham, started his career with Right to Dream, he had moved to Nordsjaelland shortly before Campbell arrived.

Campbell during his time with RB Leipzig (Craig Foy/Getty Images)

In an interview with the Scottish Football Association earlier this year, Campbell spoke about his time with Right to Dream. “In Ghana, they constantly produce players who are strong in one-v-one situations because they play a lot of street football in challenging conditions,” he said. “In Scotland, a lot of the top players excel in releasing skills, like passing and shooting but we aren’t as strong in one-v-ones, so this is an area I’ve looked to put an increased onus on as part of players’ development since I returned from Ghana.

“Given FC Nordsjaelland’s model is to play youth and develop players, it was a fantastic place to work and there’s not many clubs in the world where the first-team manager is as bought-in to the project as the technical director and head of academy. When they sell a player, they know that the next player is going to come from the academy and not from the outside world. That strategy really helps the motivation of not only the players, but all of the staff and you can constantly see the pathway when you’re on the training pitch.”

Campbell spent just under two years with Right to Dream before becoming Rangers’ under-18s head coach in August 2020. Campbell left Rangers after nearly four years to join RB Leipzig as their head of player development. During his time in Germany, Viggo Gebel and Faik Sakar both made their first-team debuts for Leipzig aged 16.

Frank worked with an IDP coach at Brentford. Steven Pressley, who took charge at Dundee in June, looked after the youngest players in the first-team squad, including Kim Ji-soo and Yehor Yarmoliuk. He would analyse and provide feedback on their performances. He also helped Ukrainian Yarmoliuk and South Korean Kim to settle into a new country and environment as part of his role.

Since Johan Lange became sporting director in November 2023, Spurs have focused on signing talented young players including Mathys Tel, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall while the academy has produced Mikey Moore and Jamie Donley. All of Campbell’s experiences mean he is the perfect candidate to give them tailored advice while Frank focuses on the team’s overall performance.

“(An IDP coach) was a big wish from Johan and I,” Frank said in an interview with Lange on the club’s website. “It’s something we spoke about and thought was crucial. Not many clubs have nailed that. We have tried that in the past, so hopefully we can take that to the next level.”

Campbell will probably work closely with Lewis, the new first-team academy transition coach. Lewis has been promoted from his previous role as head of the under-18s. He guided Spurs to victory in the Under-17 Premier League Cup in April, with Luca Williams-Barnett scoring a hat-trick in the final against Charlton Athletic. Williams-Barnett does not turn 17 until October but was named on the bench in the Europa League and Premier League last season. It will be Lewis’ responsibility to help Williams-Barnett and other academy stars smoothly transition into the first-team set-up and permanently stay there.

Stuart Lewis is now first-team academy transition coach (James Fearn/Getty Images)

“We are very fortunate as a club that we are able to attract some of the best specialist coaches in the world,” Lange said. “We want players of all ages to have that development mindset but to strengthen even more the bond between the first team and the academy. It’s something we have worked on for a number of years and with this new hire of Stuart coming into a new role, we believe it will be even stronger in the years to come.”

Otte has replaced Burch as goalkeeping coach and will be assisted by Brill. The 34-year-old has worked with the United States’ men’s national team (USMNT), Burnley, Borussia Monchengladbach and helped Liverpool to win the title last season. Otte has a PhD from the University of Cologne and produced a study titled Skill Acquisition Training Methods in Modern Football Goalkeeping.

During his time with Burnley, Otte used unorthodox methods to help the goalkeepers improve. “We use a lot of equipment — like special glasses which cut off part of the player’s vision, or eye patches. We use iPads for visual work to get them thinking,” he told The Athletic in December 2020. Last year, he gave Liverpool’s goalkeepers noise-cancelling headphones in pre-season under Arne Slot.

There has been a huge turnover of staff at Spurs, but the good news is that everybody was in place for the start of pre-season. Frank brought some of his closest allies with him and he has been surrounded by club appointments who went through a formal hiring process. Frank has a big supporting cast but hopefully it means players will receive special attention and it will lead to better performances.

“It’s very important to have (…) clear role descriptions for the coaches so they know what they are in charge of so it’s not like, ‘What are we doing today?’,” Frank said.

“They know their roles, what they need to execute and be on top of. They need to be able to overlap each other and help but the most important thing is the training out there is world-class.”

Top photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

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