Forget Kudus: Spurs have already signed Frank's new Mbeumo-type player
After becoming synonymous with Brentford, Thomas Frank would have been forgiven somewhat if he had teething problems adjusting to the Tottenham Hotspur hot-seat.
Indeed, the much-loved Dane was a mainstay for the Bees for seven years. Yet, he has instantly hit the ground running as Ange Postecoglou’s replacement in North London.
So far, only one defeat has come his way from 11 games at the Spurs helm, leading to Frank guiding his new team all the way up to third spot in the early league standings, before the international break came into play.
One of Frank’s men so far has, of course, been Mohammed Kudus, who has spearheaded plenty of points so far, including the victory over Leeds prior to the break.
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Amazingly, Frank wasn’t the only coup Spurs managed to pull off this summer when directly stealing from some of their London neighbours.
Much to the anger of West Ham supporters, the tricky forward excited the London Stadium at West Ham for Tottenham, moving across the capital in a deal worth £55m, a price tag that made him the club’s fourth-highest transfer of all time.
While West Ham loiter towards the bottom of the division, Kudus has become an instant hit donning Spurs white near the top of the competitive league, with one goal and five assists already falling into his lap from ten contests.
Already, that £55m looks to be money well spent, with Wayne Rooney even hailing the purchase as a “real top signing” after the Ghanaian’s match-winning effort at Elland Road.
There could be bold comparisons forming, too, between Kudus and one of Frank’s favourites at Brentford in Bryan Mbeumo.
Indeed, the Scandinavian boss has now potentially unearthed another blistering output machine he can rely on as his main marksman, with the 25-year-old also capable of playing all across the forward positions, like his Manchester United counterpart.
Yet, there is be a different member of Frank’s camp slipping under the radar as his next Mbeumo-style figure.
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An Mbeumo-like figure for Frank to rely on
Mbeumo and Frank would be seen as two key elements to Brentford’s unbelievable Premier League success story when the pair were still together at the GTech Community Stadium.
Staggeringly, 242 of Mbeumo’s 297 career appearances to date fell under the Dane’s long reign at the Bees, with 70 goals and 51 assists picked up along the way, winning him the label of being Frank’s “main man” as the now Spurs manager stated in April of this year.
While Kudus has gained a lot of plaudits at Spurs to date to now be seen as Frank’s main spark, there is another glue holding the North Londoners together that could be viewed as the 52-year-old’s most reliable asset: Joao Palhinha.
Kudus does offer up a similar exciting, hard-to-contain attacking presence as Mbeumo, but in Palhinha, Frank might well have uncovered another talent that allows his side to tick, with the loan-to-buy deal of £27m that’s on the table continuing to stand out as a masterstroke in this regard.
Palhinha’s PL numbers (25/26)
Stat (* = per game)
Palhinha
Games played
7
Goals scored
2
Assists
0
Touches*
49.4
Accurate passes*
30.3 (82%)
Tackles*
3.6
Ball recoveries*
2.0
Total duels won*
6.7
Stats by Sofascore
Football London’s Alasdair Gold has even hailed the deal to bring him in as “one of the bargains of the summer”, and it’s not the wildest shout when you assess the ex-Fulham man’s standout numbers to date back in the Premier League.
Away from hammering home two goals for his new employers already, Palhinha has also more than lived up to this previous billing as a “defensive monster” which was once handed to him by analyst Marcus Bring, winning a mighty 6.7 duels per game across his seven top-flight outings.
Already, it appears that Frank has stumbled across another vital commander he can rely on in a similar vein to Mbeumo, with Palhinha hopeful of many more happy seasons under his new boss, if his excellent start to life at Spurs is anything to go by.
After all, his former manager in Marco Silva, would go as far as to herald him as a “leader” at Craven Cottage and despite not donning the armband at Brentford under Frank, that’s exactly what Mbeumo was too.
Not every star man needs to bundle in the goals like the new Man Utd signing to make themselves a hero under Frank and Palhinha has certainly found that out already. Forget Kudus, the Portuguese has been their most important player to date this term.
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