This worrying Thomas Frank trend poses a huge concern for Tottenham’s future

Aston Villa survive, and the nature of this FA Cup tie might mean Thomas Frank does, too. For this week at least.

His Tottenham Hotspur players at least gave it a go, which is all that most supporters would say they want. Many had been loudly booing with Villa 2-0 up at half-time. A few still were at full-time, but the anger had been tempered by a rousing second-half display in which they pushed Unai Emery ’s side to the edge.

That stopped the atmosphere around this tie getting toxic, where so many other games on the day offered that old-fashioned magic .

The very responses still said a lot. Villa so relished securing win that Ollie Watkins vigorously celebrated the final whistle to his fans, albeit very close to Joao Palhinha’s face, which resulted in a push and a lot of afters.

Frank did defend his player, saying that Watkins was “provoking” it a bit in that he could have walked a slightly different route, and saying that Spurs “need passion” - if “also cool heads”.

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Tottenham have been so starved of that kind of conviction that a club previously seen as having a special relationship with the FA Cup were left consoled by a defiant elimination.

The truth is that it couldn’t have got much worse. Villa’s two goals - from Emi Buendia and Morgan Rogers , respectively - were taken with such ease that it looked like a tie involving a Premier League side and one much lower in the pyramid.

Unai Emery’s team were almost indulging themselves, as could be witnessed in the Buendia flick back for Rogers. How couldn’t they when Youri Tielemans was able to play the ball straight through the four-man midfield for Buendia’s own first goal? The second goal then involved some supremely slick one-touch football.

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Such insouciance may have sparked something in Spurs. Frank spoke about “more spirit, energy, determination”.

They rallied, and began to intensely press such Villa indulgence at the back. It produced their first big chance of the second half, which set a certain pace for Wilson Odobert’s fine strike.

Pace, indeed, might have been part of it.

Villa had pressed so hard in the first half that it was like they couldn’t sustain it any more. It was like that in their last trip to north London, for that 4-1 defeat to Arsenal. The prospective injury to Boubacar Kamara, who had to go off in the opening minutes, will give greater concern in that regard.

Emery spoke of the “responsibility” of finally bringing a trophy back to Villa, and it would have all the more emotional resonance if it was the FA Cup, a competition they have not won since 1957.

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One of the reasons that clubs of their resources haven’t of late, however, is that they usually get to a point where they have to make big decisions on where to apportion their energies. A top-three finish is within their sights. The Europa League poses a real opportunity. But then there’s the allure of the FA Cup.

How Spurs would love to have such concerns.

They are already out of both domestic cups, with Frank saying that “hurt”.

The home game against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday week is now huge, for Spurs’ entire season as much as their Champions League campaign.

There is a danger that it could all be over.

Judging by the fan reaction, many would like the Frank spell.

That won’t happen this week but it’s hard to see how he can survive a setback to an even more downbeat West Ham United next Saturday.

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It’s equally hard not to have some sympathy for Frank.

The Dane can get some criticism for being “media friendly”, amid the perception that spares him from more negative analysis, but it is true he has stood out as an erudite and impressive speaker.

One of the most illustrative issues at Spurs, in fact, is that he doesn’t look himself. Even when answering questions on everything from Villa’s “provoking” to transfers after the match, Frank was just unrecognisable to the charismatic character that would be so expansive at Brentford.

That’s what the weight of a bigger club can do.

It’s not just the scale, either. It’s the schedule. As Frank spoke about the injury effect on his squad from “four games in 10 days”, as Richarlison also had to go off, it was like he seemed cowed by the very calendar. Few would have expected this when he came into the job.

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He doesn’t look himself in this role, a perception that took on an element of farce when Villa supporters began to sing “Thomas Frank, he’s an Arsenal fan” in reference to the cup he drank out of at Bournemouth on Wednesday.

This isn’t to say his tenure is irretrievable, but it right now has the feel of everyone at Spurs enduring a bad situation at least until events force someone to make a decision.

The reality, of course, is that Spurs need far more interventions than just the coach. This is a club that are by now an almost lower-scale higher-dysfunction Manchester United.

If they were to sack Frank, for example, it would likely be the third season in six where Spurs have had to get a caretaker manager in mid-season.

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That is a lot of campaigns “written off”, a lot of wasted time, that should provoke bigger questions about what is actually being done before.

And, yes, the squad can probably play much better than they have under Frank - as this second half proved - but part of the underperformance is the disparate manner in which it’s been put together.

Right now, how many Spurs players would Champions League-level clubs take? How many would Villa take? Micky van de Ven? Archie Gray? Palhinha?

The latter showed some fight. That is all Spurs fans want. The club nevertheless needs much more.

Villa, as a contrasting example, just have so much more.

They just need to follow with a trophy.