Frank and Tottenham board remain alligned despite poor run of form

Thomas Frank insisted that he remains aligned with the Tottenham hierarchy despite a poor run of results and off-field problems arising in recent weeks. 

Spurs were beaten 3-2 by Bournemouth in the Premier League on Wednesday, with Antoine Semenyo's 95th-minute winner compounding Frank's men to yet another defeat. 

It was a result that leaves Spurs 14th in the table, while both Micky van de Ven and Joao Palhinha were involved in post-match altercations at the Vitality Stadium at full-time.

In addition, club captain Cristian Romero took to social media to vent his frustration, appearing to take a swipe at Spurs chiefs for spreading "lies" before editing the post. 

Indeed, since the start of last season, only Wolves (36) have suffered more Premier League defeats than Tottenham (30 – level with West Ham and Southampton).

Frank, however, said that while young leaders like Romero are bound to make mistakes, he remains on board to improve the current situation on the pitch. 

"I think, especially in football, the most important thing is to keep the noise out. Then you can see there's this situation with the post from Cuti [Romero]," Frank told reporters. 

"There could be others where it's maybe not that positive or a lot of people speaking.

"When we want to attract players, we need to tell our, as close to possible, unbiased story about this fantastic, beautiful club and why you should come to the club.

"I'm pretty sure that clever players and agents can look through if there's a little bit of noise.

"I think it's very important to stress that even though there's noise, the club is very aligned. Johan [Lange], Vinai [Venkatesham], and I are very aligned.

"Ownership is very aligned. We know it's a tough spell that we need to get through."

Frank also confirmed that Tottenham are working "very, very, very hard" to try and improve their squad after being dealt several injury blows throughout the season. 

The Spurs boss described Dejan Kulusevski's injury as "complicated" and added that Rodrigo Bentancur has a hamstring injury that is worse than first feared.

Perhaps the biggest blow is the one sustained by Mohammed Kudus, who is set to miss the next three months with an injury that he suffered against Sunderland, with the news coming just days after Brennan Johnson was sold to Crystal Palace.

"Lucas Bergvall is being assessed [on Thursday]. We will know more later with him," Frank said. 

"Same with Rodrigo Bentancur. Rodri has a hamstring injury – it looks like a bigger one, unfortunately. We don't know the time frame. That we will know later.

"Mohammed Kudus, unfortunately, is a bigger one to the tendon in the quad. That is one where we expect him back after the March international break."

Tottenham have won just one of their last six Premier League games, but have a chance to turn away from the competition this weekend in the FA Cup third round. 

Frank's team welcome high-flying Aston Villa to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, with the Dane hoping a positive result can be a foundation to build on. 

"We would love to be higher up the table. We are working hard," Frank added. 

"But the important thing is to look at the game on Saturday. It is a good opportunity as that is an important competition for the club.

"This is a tough spell that we will get through."