Thomas Frank insists that he is “very happy at Brentford”, but he has refused to rule out a future exit amid reported interest from Manchester United.
Thomas Frank has insisted that he is “very happy at Brentford“, but he has refused to rule out a future exit amid reported interest from Manchester United.
Speculation over the future of current Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag has been rife for some time, and it has intensified now that the Dutchman has overseen the club’s worst-ever start to a Premier League season.
Man United have won just two of their opening seven league games and have collected only eight points, leaving them languishing in 14th place in the table and currently closer to the relegation zone than the top four.
As things stand, Ten Hag is set to remain in charge of Man United, whose leadership group have opted to remain quiet on the 54-year-old’s future following a seven-hour executive meeting that was held by the likes of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Joel Glazer just over a week ago.
One name who has been tipped to potentially succeed Ten Hag, should Man United decide to change their manager, is Danish coach Frank, who recently celebrated his sixth anniversary at Brentford.
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Frank hints at future Brentford exit amid Man United links
Since stepping up from his assistant role under Dean Smith, Frank has taken charge of 283 Brentford games across all competitions, winning 119, drawing 69 and losing 95.
The 51-year-old led the Bees to promotion to the Premier League in 2022 via the Championship playoffs and has cemented their place in the top flight ever since, finishing 16th last season.
Brentford has since made a bright start to the new campaign and have accumulated 10 points from seven games, sitting two points and three places above Saturday’s opponents Man United.
Last month, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola heaped praise on Frank, saying he was a “big fan” of the Dane and believes it is just “a question of time” before he lands one of European football’s biggest jobs.
In response to those comments from Guardiola and speculation about his future, Frank told talkSPORT: “I’ve said many times I’m very happy at Brentford.
“Who knows what will happen in the future. Maybe I stay here for many years. I’m open, maybe something happens.
“But first and foremost, very happy, just working very hard every day to make the club better.”
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Frank admits it is “very difficult to predict the future”
Asked specifically what he meant by being ‘open’ to a future move, Frank said: “That’s because it’s very difficult to predict the future.
“Who knows what will happen. How many coaches have been at the same club more than six years? Very few. [It’s] the nature of the game, let’s put it that way.”
Frank added: “There is a lot of rumours out there. Every club, every coach, all kinds of situations.
“I have this nice little principle that I never speak about players that are not in my club because I don’t know them well enough, and I don’t speak about speculation either way.”
This weekend, Frank will take his Brentford team to Old Trafford where they will endeavour to claim their first away points of the season after losing each of their first three league games on the road against Liverpool, Man City and Tottenham Hotspur.