Matthijs Tell has been left out of Tottenham’s Champions League squad, making him absent from the European squad for the second time this season. Manager Thomas Frank has confirmed that Tell, who signed for £30 million from Bayern Munich last summer, has been released as Dominic Solanke returns to fitness. The France international was already dropped from Spurs’ squad in September.
Solanke’s return would allow Spurs to use a loophole in UEFA regulations to bring him back into the squad. But while the centre-forward returns, Tell will pay the price and will be left out of the squad for the final two league games against Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. Announcing the news, Frank explained at the pre-match press conference: “I made a decision. It wasn’t a good decision, but unfortunately that’s football. According to the rules, there were only two options: Dom or Mattis, and I chose Dom.”
“Because I think Matisse has performed very well in the last few games, if I could choose from all the players he would start tomorrow, but I can only choose between those two. It’s a difficult game for Matisse, but he’s not in tomorrow’s squad.”Fabrizio Romano reported that Tell and his agent were furious at the decision to expel the attacker.
Asked how he thought fans would react to the decision to leave the 20-year-old out, Frank said: “I don’t know. You have to understand it’s not an easy decision. Who’s going to be in the team tomorrow, him or Dom (Solanke)? That’s the decision. I believe it’s the right decision and that’s the decision I made.”
The Tottenham manager faced jeers at the weekend when he replaced Tell during the 2-1 defeat to West Ham. Solanke came on for the Frenchman in the 62nd minute when the Hammers were leading 1-0. “Of course we have to make decisions, so we had to take one offensive player out,” Frank admitted after the game.
“And we felt that Wilson (Odbert) was a little bit better on the right side and we wanted two strikers on the pitch. So that was the decision. There was nothing wrong with Matisse’s performance.”
The Spurs manager is under increasing pressure as the Dane have just 11 wins and 12 losses in 32 games played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “We fight even when our backs are against the wall. I will fight with energy. It’s not about me. We need to win football matches and we need to achieve it together. We are ready, we are focused on the game together and the players look good,” Frank said at the press conference before the match against Dortmund.
Asked if he could win back the fans, a confident Frank added: “Yes, there’s no doubt about that. Resilience is always needed in this game. The three most important things in showing resilience are having good values. I believe I’m a guy with good values.”
“The second thing is, you know the reality. The reality is that 1 in 5 people won’t like you no matter what you do, but 1 in 5 people will love you no matter what you do. There’s probably bias on both sides, no matter what you do.”
“And number three and number five are nice people, as long as you behave well, are polite, and show integrity. The reality is, not everyone is going to like you.”
