‘Sacking the manager won’t ensure they stay up’ – Nigel Winterburn reacts to Frank sacking

Tottenham’s decision to sack Thomas Frank may have been intended as a decisive move to arrest a dramatic slide towards relegation, but Nigel Winterburn has warned Spurs supporters that a change in the dugout offers no guarantees.

Speaking exclusively to Hayters.com, the former West Ham, Arsenal and England defender suggested Tottenham’s problems run deeper than their manager, insisting the club’s Premier League status is now under genuine threat with just 12 games remaining.

“I’m not really sure what impact it will have, if I’m honest,” Winterburn said when asked about the immediate effect of Frank’s dismissal. “I’ve seen a few of their games this season and it’s been such a weird season for them. In one half they can be absolutely useless, and then in the second half they put a performance together.”

Frank departs having overseen just two wins from Tottenham’s last 16 Premier League matches, a run that has dragged the club down into 16th place, two places above the relegation zone. While Spurs supporters may hope for a familiar ‘new manager bounce’, Winterburn believes that narrative is far from reliable.

“People talk about a bounce, but we’ve seen as many managers come in and not have a bounce as have had one,” he said,  speaking with Hayters via Gambling.com who review the leading Online Casinos in the UK. “When you’re in poor form as a player, it doesn’t just take one game to get that belief back. It takes a few.”

Winterburn suggested Tottenham’s ownership would not have made such a drastic call unless relegation had become a serious concern. “They’ve obviously reacted this way because the people running the club are worried about relegation being a real possibility, not just an ‘it-won’t-happen-to-us’ situation.”

While Tottenham search for stability under an interim manager, Winterburn believes West Ham have quietly shifted the balance in the bottom half. The Hammers, currently 18th, have taken 10 points from their last six matches,  the fourth-best return in the division over that period, following a significant upturn in form under Nuno Espirito Santo.

“It was looking like it was pretty much done for West Ham,” Winterburn admitted. “Those three teams at the bottom looked nailed on. But in the last four or five weeks they’ve improved dramatically. They now look like they can get results.”

With Leeds, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and West Ham all separated by just six points at the time of Frank’s dismissal, Winterburn believes the final relegation spot is far from settled. “From third bottom up, you’re not just fighting one team,” he said. “You’re probably looking at five or six results every week to see where that leaves you.”

Tottenham’s upcoming fixtures underline the scale of the task ahead, with matches against Arsenal, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest looming. Home games against direct rivals may appear advantageous on paper, but Winterburn is unconvinced.

“Only time will tell if those fixtures work in their favour,” he said. “But sacking the manager alone won’t ensure they stay up.”

Despite bookmakers still tipping West Ham and Forest for relegation, Winterburn believes momentum could prove decisive and Spurs cannot rely on reputation alone to save them.