Thomas Frank slammed over Tottenham ‘cop-out’ after Everton draw – ‘Abdication of responsibility’ | OneFootball

Thomas Frank and Match of the Day have been criticised after the former Tottenham boss offered no analysis of Spurs’ draw with Everton on Saturday night.

Frank joined host Kelly Cates and ex-Premier League defender Ashley Williams on Match of the Day seven months after being sacked by Tottenham.

Somewhat surprisingly given the Dane’s presence, Williams focused on the performance of Everton midfielder James Garner while Frank – on the show seven months after being sacked by Tottenham – said nothing.

talkSPORT host Paul Hawksbee believes Match of the Day fell below their high editorial standards by failing to ask Frank about his former side, who have now gone four games at the start of the season without scoring for the first time in their history.

Hawksbee did admit that it may have been Frank who refused to speak about his former employers, in which case he believes he shouldn’t have been asked on the show.

“There seemed to be a real odd abdication of responsibility on Match of the Day the other night,” he said on Hawksbee and Jacobs.

“Thomas Frank was in the studio, and Tottenham v Everton was last. It wasn’t a thriller, but there is a story there… it seemed to be the story everywhere else on planet Earth, that Tottenham haven’t scored, another game they haven’t scored.

“So what they did at the end of Match of the Day, was do an in-depth look at James Garner and his performance, and they never involved Thomas Frank at all.

“They just said to Ashley, ‘James Garner was good, wasn’t he?’ He said, ‘Yes, he was’, and they showed a few bits.

“He did play well but (Jarrad) Branthwaite, I thought, was their best player, I thought he was brilliant. A, if you were going to single anybody out, it would have been him.

“And B, I just thought Thomas Frank had said, ‘I don’t want to talk about Spurs, especially the way it’s going’… well, don’t be a pundit then!

“I’m sure they will say that wasn’t the case and they’ve been waiting for weeks to do the James Garner deep dive.

“I sat there and thought, ‘Thomas Frank is on, I’d be interested to know what he says’. It was just a cop-out and, editorially, they’re better than that.”