“I’m desperate to show Enzo Maresca who I am with Brentford” “Chelsea didn’t want me last summer” – Brentford man tells Chelsea
There was a four-person shortlist before Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was chosen, a move that appears to have been well-considered by the game. Thomas Frank, Roberto De Zerbi, the former Brighton manager, Kieran McKenna of Ipswich Town, and the current head coach.
The latter was undoubtedly seen as the least glamorous, maybe as a result of Brentford’s style of play since their 2021 elevation to the Premier League. He was the oldest of the last four players to succeed Mauricio Pochettino, at 51, but it didn’t seem to matter.
McKenna committed himself to the team he had led from League One to the top flight in just two seasons before De Zerbi was ruled out. It left Premier League-proven Frank, with a humble, adaptable, and totally endearing way about him, against the lesser known, seemingly more dogmatic, and riddled with Chelsea cliche for the time, Maresca.
Frank, meanwhile, remains in the mix for pretty much every job that comes along. He was linked to Chelsea briefly in 2022 before Graham Potter was hired whilst his name also cropped up nine months later in the look to find a permanent successor.
He has never shied away from discussing a potential exit from Brentford either. “We all have an ego,” he said when asked about moving on whilst the Chelsea job was available. “Mine’s not the biggest but it’s not the smallest and it’s always the ego that gets in the way of good performances and life.
“Also, I’m realistic in many ways. I’m enjoying my life here. This is probably the perfect football life, working in a good club in London, in the best league in the world with good players, we can compete.
“Do we want to win titles? Yes, that would be nice but it’s not do-or-die. I still think it’s possible to win a cup and that’s the aim, to go as far as possible.
“If a big club one day comes to knock on my door, then I need to consider it but it’s not something I’m hunting. I could stay in Brentford for, well, forever is probably a crazily long time but I could stay here for a further sustained period.
“One day maybe I need to try something else, I don’t know. I’m more open. I’m happy here and sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for. Also, in football you can’t plan. Keep your head down, work and see where it takes you.”
Hardly jumping in or out of the club, he has more recently opened up on his plans in management. “I’ve said many times I’m very happy at Brentford,” Frank told talkSPORT in October as United were in the market.
“Who knows what will happen in the future. Maybe I stay here for many years. I’m open, maybe something happens. But first and foremost, very happy, just working very hard every day to make the club better.”
He continued: “It’s very difficult to predict the future. Who knows what will happen. How many coaches have been at the same club more than six years? Very few. [It’s] the nature of the game, let’s put it that way.”
Directly pushed on the possibility of going to West Ham with pressure mounting on Julen Lopetegui, Frank further went on: “There is a lot of rumours out there. Every club, every coach, all kinds of situations. I have this nice little principle that I never speak about players that are not in my club because I don’t know them well enough. And I don’t speak about speculation either way.”
Would he go to a national team instead, with the step-up not certain to come? “That’s a thing I can see myself in, but who knows what will happen in the future.”
It is very much the same message from Frank, who remains grounded but mightily impressive nonetheless. In fact, despite their contrasting styles, his promotion-sealing compares well to Maresca’s at Leicester.
On a much smaller budget, and without the boost of having a host of Premier League quality players just relegated, Frank ended with just one goal fewer conceded, losing four less as well. There will be little surprise to those who have watched both Frank and Maresca progress from the second tier that they have become successes in their own way so far.
One has had an immediate show of faith from an elite club, though, and the other continues to slog away with limited resources in a much more unglamorous fashion. Frank will argue that his Brentford are doing what very few else can do, though, and are matching Chelsea on the entertainment front.
In 15 matches ahead of Sunday, his team has scored 31 (more than all but Chelsea and Liverpool) but have conceded 28. Ipswich, in 18th, have let in the same number, whilst Crystal Palace one place higher have allowed eight fewer past them. Brentford had the most goals conceded in the top half by five entering matchday 16.
Not generally seen as great attackers or flee-flowing founders, Frank has given new life to group without talisman Ivan Toney. He is also expecting a tough match against Chelsea, where it’s not hard to imagine he might have been in another universe.
“I expect an interesting game with two good teams,” he said ahead of the match. “They are maybe the best team in the Premier League right now. They are maybe even more in form than Liverpool, even though they are top of the league.
“They are playing incredible football and are well coached. Maresca has done a top job so far with his coaching staff and they look extremely dangerous. They have so many threats going forward and have top-quality players all over the pitch.
“I expect an unbelievably difficult game. They are massive favourites but, of course, we believe that we can compete against anyone and we believe we can win.”
It will be yet another chance for Frank to prove he too is worthy of getting access to the riches Mareca now has. Not one to hold grudges, Frank knows it is an opportunity to show off his management skills and Chelsea won’t need reminding.
He has won on each of his three previous trips to SW6 in the Premier League, leaving Chelsea reeling in all of Brentford’s visits. It is these performances among many others that have made him such an admired coach. As is ever the case with Frank, he doesn’t think the grass is greener if he is to leave.
Speaking on the Sports Agents podcast earlier this season he summed up those strong feelings yet again. “I am probably at one of the best clubs in the world,” he said. “End of discussion. In terms of alignment, leadership, culture, everything. Why should I ever leave this place?
“Things can happen and you can want new inspiration, maybe you find another inspiration at your club and you stay. For sure, if I ever got the offer to go to a big club and I decided to go there, it would probably not make my life better. I think we all know that.
“Maybe it is a challenge you need to try. It is not something I am thinking about.” He added: “I have sacrificed a lot throughout my life to reach where I am now. I missed my children’s birthdays for five years in a row. I have been working 60, 70 hours a week for the last 30 years. You don’t know how it would be if you walked into another job.
“Maybe it will be even better than it is here? I don’t know that and I am just looking at the exposure on certain managers. I don’t think that is part of the football they love. I am happy here. What will happen in the future will happen and we will take it from there.”
Even more recently he was drawn to say very similarly again. “I think a couple of things,” he said earlier this month when asked about what his ambitions are. “One, I’ve said it a million times, I’m very, very happy here. If I ever should go to another club, I think it’s difficult sometimes to be in a position to ask the right questions.
“You definitely need to do due diligence yourself. You need to pick your chairman. That can be difficult because it’s not that often that you’ve got the possibility to choose between three clubs, there’s maybe two or three managers in the world that can do that.
“So more normal managers, if that club comes and we think it is interesting enough, then it’s maybe not an option for us to chose the chairman if we want that challenge.” Frank continued: “This is a general thing I will say now, it’s not [just] for me, I think for any football head coach or manager, of course, the ownership/chairman is important.
“I think the club you’re going into, can you instantly improve it? Is there low-hanging fruits, or is it difficult to raise the bar? And is their finances good? Can you get the players in and out you want to? I think that’s the key.”
In true Frank fashion, he finished: “I think there’s a part of me that thinks that one day, maybe I need to try something different. Is that a bigger club, Champions League, bigger challenge? I don’t know.
“The flip side of me is thinking, because I think I’m a little bit different – I don’t know, of course I don’t know all my colleagues, their family lives and social life – but I’m a very social person. I love that part of life as well, being together with friends and family and being able to travel and all that.
“I’m working very hard at Brentford, but I’m in a club where everything is working. Everything I’ve been a part of building is you know, all the processes. And then last year, I’m not saying we were fighting relegation but it’s not going completely the way we thought.
“So okay then, it’s a little bit tougher, but there’s a lot of things in this club where it’s easier than you going into another club where you need to build the culture, you need to build everything, all that. So that’s probably the two questions I need to ask myself. And plus Brentford, maybe there is extra layers.
“Who knows what will happen in the future when we can do even more? I think that’s probably the two questions I’m asking myself. So now I’m just thinking ‘What is it that I want in life?’. Is that constant chasing, which I already do a little bit – to want to do better, and better, and better?”
He, more than most, will want to demonstrate to Chelsea just what he can do.