The final whistle against Fulham on Saturday was not the sound of defeat; it was the sound of a cultural combustion.

A miserable 2-1 home loss, where Spurs conceded twice in the first six minutes was grim and, just 6 months in, left the fans wondering whether they've had enough of the Thomas Frank experience.

Thomas Frank is discovering the brutal reality that has claimed so many victims before him—David Moyes at United, Graham Potter at Chelsea, Nuno Espírito Santo at Spurs.

The skillset required to overachieve with a small club is diametrically opposed to the skillset required to succeed at a big one.

At Brentford, Frank was a genius because he minimised risk. He optimised limited resources by making the game chaotic and uncomfortable for superior opponents. But when you are the superior opponent, that mindset becomes a straitjacket.

The recent run of results exposes this cultural mismatch. The 4-1 humiliation by Arsenal wasn't just a defeat; it was a rejection of Frank’s entire philosophy. Spurs tried to "contain" Arsenal and got battered. Then came the 2-1 home loss to Fulham—a game where Spurs had 65% possession but looked utterly clueless about how to break down a team that did to them exactly what Frank used to do to everyone else.

The most damning indictment of the Frank era is the fear.

Under Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham were often reckless, but they were never afraid. Now, they look terrified of their own shadow.

When Pedro Porro receives the ball now, he doesn’t look for the overlap; he checks his shoulder and plays it safe to the center-back. When Yves Bissouma wins a tackle, he doesn't drive forward; he looks for the "retention" pass.

Frank has coached the chaos out of them. But in doing so, he has also coached out the spark.

Nothing illustrates this waste of talent better than the Xavi Simons situation.

The Dutchman was signed to be the heir to the throne—the creative hub of a new, dominant Spurs. instead, he looks like a prisoner. In Frank’s rigid system, Simons is being asked to play with the discipline of a wing-back.

Against Fulham, Simons spent more time tracking Antonee Robinson than he did in the opposition box. Watching one of Europe’s most electrifying number 10s chasing full-backs into his own corner flag is painful.

As if the Fulham defeat was not grim enough, what followed after the match was very alarming: a public declaration of war by the manager against the supporters who pay a king’s ransom to watch his team toil.

When fans booed Guglielmo Vicario after the goalkeeper gifted Fulham their second goal, Thomas Frank, in a spectacular moment of tone-deafness, rounded on them. He stated those jeering their own players during the game were "not true Tottenham fans."

When managers start going up against the fans, it usually marks the beginning of the end. Just ask Ange Postecoglou.

Frank’s comments didn't just question the fans’ patience; they questioned their very identity. In a week already defined by the 4-1 humiliation by Arsenal and the growing discomfort with his cautious tactics, the manager committed the one unpardonable sin in North London.

The optics are not great: a £200 million squad, assembled over the summer to compete at the top, is now unified not by a desire to win trophies, but by a shared grievance against the paying public.

Frank is demanding unwavering support for a project that has delivered just three Premier League home wins in the entirety of 2025.

Last night's 2-2 draw at Newcastle might have saved Frank from a full-blown crisis this morning, but it hasn’t solved the problem.

Tottenham fans don’t demand trophies (they are realistic enough for that), but they demand glory. They demand a team that tries to win, not one that is terrified to lose.

Thomas Frank is a brilliant manager who may currently be managing the wrong club. He is trying to impose a "small team" mentality on a squad built for dominance. Unless he learns to let go of the handbrake, to trust his players to be better than the opposition rather than just more organised than them, he will find that the "Big Six" is a club you can be kicked out of very quickly.

Tottenham wants to dare to dream.