Premier League
Tottenham Part Company with Thomas Frank Amid Mounting Relegation Concern
Tottenham have dismissed Thomas Frank after poor results left the club 16th, and five points adrift.
Tottenham Hotspur have confirmed the dismissal of manager Thomas Frank. The club published a statement on social media, saying: “Thomas was appointed in June 2025, and we have been determined to give him the time and support needed to build for the future together,” the club wrote on social media. “However, results and performances have led the board to conclude that a change at this point in the season is necessary.”
Frank, who was appointed in June 2025, leaves with a record of seven wins from 26 Premier League matches in charge. Tottenham sit 16th in the Premier League table, five points clear of the relegation zone with 12 matches remaining. Their next fixture is at home to Arsenal on Sunday.
The reaction from supporters during Tuesday’s defeat was audible as sustained boos were directed at Frank and the players. Fans had made their displeasure clear as the club slipped into a position that brings the threat of relegation into real focus.
Frank had pleaded for more time to turn things around, adding: “I understand the fans’ frustration,” Frank confessed after the final whistle. “We are in a position we don’t want to be in and we are working very hard day and night to change.
“I also think it is a situation now the club has been in, it’s fair to say, for almost two years and at the end of last season as well—clearly a pattern that we struggle to manage Europe and the Premier League. It’s something me, the team, the club, the players we need to learn to do even better physically and mentally to deal with that.
“Part of that of course is the 11 injuries or 10 plus a suspension plus another one today which of course doesn’t help in a situation like that. Then we face a Newcastle team which is struggling a little bit lately, look at what they put out on the pitch, compared to what they have done in the last three years. I think it’s fair to say it’s quite different to us.”
He added: “I understand the mechanism in football, no doubt about that but there are a lot of studies that [sacking the manager] is not the right thing to do.
“I know it’s the only movement they have, but there’s also plenty of situations where it’s not the right thing to do. The only thing I’ll focus on is fighting, doing the right thing together with everyone else.”
The board’s decision came hours after another managerial target from last summer became available on the market.
Chelsea
Chelsea under BlueCo: ranking the five managers who served more than 10 games
BlueCo era at Chelsea ranked: five managers with more than 10 games, judged by record. Full breakdown
The BlueCo period at Chelsea has been defined by instability in the dugout and the steady turnover of managers. With Liam Rosenior the latest to lose the job, the club will begin 2026–27 with a sixth permanent manager under BlueCo. Below are the five bosses who managed more than 10 matches in that era, assessed on results and the lasting imprint of their tenures.
Frank Lampard (Games Managed: 11 | Winning Percentage: 9.1% | Trophies Won: 0)
Frank Lampard’s second spell as caretaker in 2022–23 stands in stark contrast to his earlier success. He had “overcoming a transfer ban to lead the Blues to the Champions League in 2019–20,” but his interim run in April produced Chelsea’s worst recent form. Lampard became the first and only manager in Chelsea’s history to lose the opening four games of his tenure. A 3–1 win against Bournemouth was the lone victory of his caretaker spell and the campaign finished with Chelsea 12th in the Premier League, their lowest top-flight finish since 1994.
Liam Rosenior (Games Managed: 23 | Winning Percentage: 47.8% | Trophies Won: 0)
Rosenior’s period began promisingly, with four consecutive Premier League wins and two Champions League victories that helped Chelsea qualify among the top eight in the group stage. The form collapsed thereafter: apart from FA Cup ties against lower-league opponents, Chelsea won just one of their last 11 matches under Rosenior. The team failed to score against a top-flight opponent in each of their last six games with him in charge. After Enzo Fernández scored a momentary equalizer in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea were outscored 17–0 by top-flight rivals until Rosenior’s sacking.
Graham Potter (Games Managed: 31 | Winning Percentage: 38.7% | Trophies Won: 0)
Potter, the first permanent BlueCo appointment, was unable to steady the side after Thomas Tuchel’s departure. Chelsea won seven of the 22 Premier League matches Potter oversaw and he left with a joint-lowest points-per-game record for managers with more than 20 league matches at 1.27, tied with Glenn Hoddle. After winning just four matches after the calendar turned to 2023, Potter was dismissed in early April while the club endured its most difficult season of the 21st century. He did reach the Champions League quarterfinals during his tenure.
Taken together, the five tenures reveal a period of repeated disruption and mixed short-term flashes amid extended poor runs of form.
Premier League
Opta model reshapes Premier League relegation fight after late Spurs and West Ham drama
Late drama swung the fight for safety. Opta’s model today reshuffles relegation odds after Saturday.
Saturday produced a late swing in the bottom three and left the relegation fight tighter than before the final four fixtures. With eight minutes remaining João Palhinha bundled home what looked like a decisive winner for Spurs, and home supporters were still celebrating when Everton produced an equaliser that reached the crowd. Spurs briefly climbed out of the relegation zone, only for Callum Wilson to power West Ham back into a stoppage-time lead to secure three points and sour what was a first win of 2026 for Spurs.
Opta’s supercomputer has translated the weekend’s events into updated projections for the closing run. The model gives the current table and chances as follows: Leeds United sit 15th on 40 current points with expected points of 45.74 and a 1.21% chance of relegation. Nottingham Forest are 16th on 39 points, with 43.99 expected points and a 1.75% relegation probability. West Ham are 17th on 36 points, expected to finish on 40.12 points and recorded a 37.35% chance of going down. Tottenham occupy 18th on 34 points with 38.57 expected points and a 59.59% relegation likelihood. Burnley and Wolves remain certain relegation cases, both at 100.00% in the model, with Burnley on 20 points and expected 23.44, Wolves on 17 points and expected 21.51.
Leeds’ midweek draw with Bournemouth pushed them to the conventional safety threshold of 40 points, and Daniel Farke’s side sit in a far healthier position according to the numbers. Nottingham Forest’s 5–0 win over Sunderland on Friday moved them within a point of Leeds and bolstered their goal difference. West Ham’s late victory lifted Nuno Espírito Santo’s team out of the drop zone for now. Roberto De Zerbi’s Spurs remain two points adrift of safety and face the steepest statistical risk as the campaign heads into its final four matches.
Man Utd Transfer News
Fernandes says family counsel convinced him to remain at United amid Saudi interest
Fernandes says his wife helped him decide to stay at United amid Saudi interest and upheaval for now
Bruno Fernandes has revealed that a private conversation with his wife played a decisive role in his choice to stay at Manchester United last summer. Faced with significant offers from Saudi clubs, the United captain reflected on priorities with his family and concluded that he still had more to offer the club.
“I stayed because I thought I still had something that I can give back to the club,” Fernandes told The Wayne Rooney Show .
He described the financial temptation succinctly and praised his wife’s pragmatic view. “Obviously the Saudi situation, with the money … there was a lot. The good thing I have in my family is that my wife is pretty down to earth like me.
“We’re very aware that we don’t want to be the richest person in the world. We just want to be the ones that have achieved the dreams they had and live a good life with their kids and trying to be as successful as possible.
“The words of my wife were like, ‘have you achieved your dreams? Have you achieved everything you wanted?’
“And that small thing she said made me understand that she’s on the same page as me. Let’s keep trying and see where this takes me.”
Fernandes added: “I didn’t want to leave the club at the point where we were struggling.” Earlier this season, while United were toiling under Ruben Amorim, there was widespread speculation the club might cash in on its marquee player to fund a rebuild. Fernandes has long expressed a desire to remain, though he has accepted he would leave if the club asked him to.
A change of fortunes under Michael Carrick has seen United rise to third in the Premier League table and the sense that the club is no longer in freefall has strengthened. Fernandes made clear his ambitions remain high: “I want to win the Premier League,” he said. “I want to win the Champions League. I never hide from that.”
Still, the long-term outcome will depend on United’s transfer strategy and whether selling Fernandes becomes the most attractive means to finance the squad’s reconstruction.
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