After nearly half an hour, the search is abandoned and Thomas Frank finally concedes defeat. ‘I need to find that,’ the Brentford boss says. ‘I can’t.’ The task was simple enough: what is the Danish phrase for ‘losing your bottle’?
One to mull over, perhaps, as Brentford embark on another Championship play-off campaign, almost 10 months after their emotionally-charged ride towards the Premier League was derailed by Fulham at Wembley. Luckily, Frank needs no translation.
‘I know exactly what you mean,’ the Dane says. ‘I understand the phrase, and I understand why we — or the media, fans, whatever — need a narrative. And I know definitely, if we’re going to make it, I can already...’ He stutters in search of the right words.
‘If you want help, I can write the headline for that one. I can also write the headline if we’re not going to make it. It’s very simple.’ It is also testament to Frank and Brentford that we are here again.
Following the play-off final, their squad had only 10 days off before attention turned to another slog for the summit.
They have had to cope without Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma while nursing the emotional scars of heartbreak.
‘How do you cope with that? Do you become stronger?’ Frank asks. ‘We’re not Leeds, we’re not a huge club. We are Brentford. We have a mid-table budget. So I think we’re performing unbelievably.’
Frank vowed that his side would bounce back, better for the experience. Over nine months on, he insists they have kept that promise. ‘We have learned and will be better prepared. Unfortunately, in football that does not equal 100 per cent success. But we will have a bigger chance, definitely.’
Recent history suggests the margins will be razor-thin between Brentford, Swansea, Barnsley and Bournemouth.
‘I know it’s all about the result in the end but we need to look at the performances and the processes or else we get crazy — we can’t live in that world,’ Frank says.
‘We know we are a good team. My staff know they’re good. I know I’m a good coach. But sometimes it’s better in the final game to be a lucky club, a lucky team, lucky staff and a lucky coach.’
Fortune has deserted them before — Brentford have failed in their nine previous play-off campaigns, an English football record.
So the tense tightrope towards the top flight will test players between their ears, too. That shouldn’t faze Frank, a sports psychology graduate.
Frank’s final thesis covered leadership in football. ‘You can’t tell anyone, I never finished it,’ he whispers. ‘I got my first full-time job in football. I said, “I’ll finish it during the summer”. We didn’t!’
He was supposed to explore how coaches show leadership by asking questions. Instead, Frank was forced to learn on the job. The Dane is one of only two managers in England’s top two divisions without a playing career. ‘I knew because I was not a player I needed to study a lot,’ he says.
‘I visited Argentina back in 2005. There was this quote from an Argentinian coach. He said when he was 30, he thought he knew everything about football — I was around 30 then and I thought yes, of course I know everything.
‘Then when he turned 40 he found out that he knew nothing. Then he turned 50 and started to think: OK, it’s falling a little bit more into place. Then he turned 60 and found out he still had a lot more to learn. So it’s an ongoing process. I love that quote and I really put it into my mind and said, “F****** hell, I can learn more”.’
Psychology seeps throughout his methods: the Brentford boss involves staff and players in key decisions, such as their recent switch to a back three.
He subscribes to the philosophy of ‘appreciative inquiry’ — collective improvement through focusing on what already works, rather than on problems to solve.
‘I have three things I try to live by: love, demands and consequence. The same way I try to raise my children,’ Frank explains. ‘They need to get a lot of love, there need to be a lot of demands, and there need to be some consequences if they don’t live up to the things we agreed on.’
His end goal? Building players’ self-confidence and self-esteem. That battle to raise spirits applied even at Brentford’s lowest ebb.
Last August, after 105 goalless minutes at Wembley, keeper David Raya was caught out by Joe Bryan’s free-kick. Frank’s side never recovered and lost 2-1.
‘I told David the day after I want him to be even more brave, in an even higher position,’ Frank says. ‘Mistakes happen, that’s football, that’s why we love it so much.
‘It made us stronger. We found out that we can cope with things. Life goes on.’
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i want them to come up