Throughout his deliberate career path, Mohammed Kudus has made significant judgments using a special combination of intuition and intellect. Both criteria were met by manager Thomas Frank when he selected Tottenham Hotspur.
The club’s summer recruit told Sports Illustrated, “He just fit perfectly in my head and it just felt right in my stomach.”
After several chances to enter the Premier League, Kudus finally accepted the offer from West Ham United in 2023. The one-man swarm had plenty of admirers this summer after establishing himself as possibly the most effective offensive outlet in east London. But it was “only” Tottenham, as he explained in his initial interviews as a Spurs player.
Frank’s high status was the source of that clear reasoning. More convincing than anything he could have said to Kudus was the friendly Danish coach’s record.
| Player | Best Scoring Season Before Frank | Best Scoring Season Under Frank |
|---|---|---|
| Bryan Mbeumo | 10 (Ligue 2) | 20 (Premier League) |
| Ivan Toney | 24 (League One) | 31 (Championship) |
| Yoane Wissa | 15 (Ligue 2) | 19 (Premier League) |
| Ollie Watkins | 13 (League Two) | 25 (Championship) |
| Saïd Benrahma | 9 (Ligue 2) | 17 (Championship) |
When reflecting on his faith in Frank, Kudus says: “Looking at his work at Brentford with attackers. I can name so many; [Bryan] Mbeumo, Ivan Toney, [Mikkel] Damsgaard. So many attackers I’ve seen his development with them has been really, really massive.
“So I thought that he’d be the perfect guy to help with my development. And how he wants his attackers to play, I think I have the qualities to play like that and that’s how I want to play.”
Frank oversaw three waves of forwards flourish under his watch at Brentford. The likes of Ollie Watkins and Saïd Benrahma improved so much that they were poached by Premier League clubs before the Bees had even made it into England’s top flight.
Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo made the jump from the Championship with Brentford and both hit 20 Premier League goals in a single campaign under Frank. Yoane Wissa moved to west London in 2021 with just one full season of top-flight football to his name and joined Newcastle United on Deadline Day for £55 million ($74.1 million), more than six times what he cost before working with Frank.
The attacking transformation players undergo on Frank’s watch doesn’t come easily. As Kudus points out: “He’s a very demanding coach, offensively and defensively.
“One of my major attributes is getting the ball one-v-one and taking players on. The team try to put me in positions to do that which helps a lot. Just try to create as much as I can, but defensively as always he expects a lot, of course.”
Kudus is not alone in working against the ball. “We press high, whichever opposition we play,” he says of Tottenham’s style. “We press really, really high and that comes with a lot of running demands and high interesting movements and stuff like that, too. The demand from him is very high but it really, really helps the team and you can see that from some of the games already.”
Manchester City, so often comfortable playing out of a thimble of space, were left notably frazzled by Tottenham’s press in an early sign of how Frank’s demanding approach can bring the best out of Kudus and his teammates.
