Tottenham’s new coach Thomas Frank wanted a player like Joao Palhinha — and is a little surprised that this “top player” was available.
Thomas Frank has been a Premier League coach since 2021 and his promotion with Brentford FC, so he already has experience with Joao Palhinha. His conclusion: the Portuguese player, who is under contract with Fulham FC from 2022 to 2024, is one of those players you’d rather have on your own team.
“I watched him closely and remember the battles we had with him,” the new Tottenham Hotspur coach recalls. “It was so annoying to play against him.” Frank no longer has that problem: Spurs have signed Palhinha on loan from Bayern Munich for one season, with an option to buy.
And Frank can hardly believe his luck. “Yes, I was a little surprised,” the Dane admitted to the website football.london, given that Bayern were willing to let Palhinha go after only one year, having courted him for so long. “But I don’t really care.” Currently, “there aren’t many clear number sixes on the market, so we’re very lucky to get him.”
Palhinha is a “top player” who has impressed “everyone” in the Premier League and is also a regular in Portugal’s national team. Whether it was “the coach, the culture, the club or himself” that caused Bayern to let him go, “all that matters to me is that he wanted to come and we wanted him,” said Frank.
Frank sounds like Tuchel
Palhinha, whom Bayern coach Vincent Kompany didn’t know what to do with, gives Tottenham’s squad “something we don’t have yet” as a “clear number six,” according to the Dane, who sounds a bit like Kompany’s predecessor Thomas Tuchel, who wanted Palhinha badly but didn’t get him. Frank also appreciates his “defensive qualities, his ability to be very disciplined in the center, his ball distribution” and the way he can “disrupt the game,” “especially when playing away or against good counterattacking teams. It’s very important to have someone who doesn’t run away,” i.e., leave his position, “or get distracted by something.”
Frank is not particularly concerned that the new man will already be 31 in July 2026 when Spurs can sign him permanently for a reported €30 million. Palhinha’s experience was an important factor. And besides, “it’s important to have a few players who can perform immediately.”