{"id":687654,"date":"2026-01-10T22:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687654\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T22:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:32:13","slug":"thomas-frank-blames-england-star-ollie-watkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687654\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Frank blames England star Ollie Watkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Frank blamed Ollie Watkins for sparking a post-match brawl<\/a> and admitted he was left “hurt” following Tottenham’s FA Cup elimination at the hands of Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

The 2-1 defeat compounds the mounting pressure on the Danish manager and extends a troubling sequence for the Spurs boss, who has now suffered seven defeats across his previous 13 fixtures in charge.<\/p>\n

Despite a determined fightback after the interval, Tottenham could not overturn first-half strikes from Emiliano Buendia and Morgan Rogers, with Wilson Odobert’s 55th-minute goal proving merely a consolation.<\/p>\n

The result prompted jeers from home supporters, denying Frank a desperately needed cup run during an increasingly difficult spell.<\/p>\n

Ugly scenes followed the final whistle when Watkins, who had previously played under Frank at Brentford, celebrated provocatively in front of Palhinha, triggering a confrontation that drew in players from both squads, including Morgan Rogers and Ezri Konsa.<\/p>\n

Frank’s week had already descended into chaos after he was spotted drinking from a coffee cup bearing Arsenal’s logo ahead of Wednesday’s 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

Villa’s travelling supporters seized upon the gaffe, directing mocking chants at the Tottenham manager, suggesting he was a supporter of their north London rivals.<\/p>\n

Frank defended his squad’s passionate response while criticising Watkins for sparking the altercation.<\/p>\n

\"\\u200bThomas<\/p>\n

Thomas Frank admitted he was left ‘hurt’ following Tottenham’s FA Cup elimination at the hands of Aston Villa<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

He said: “We are all hurt. There is nothing we want to do more than to get through to the next round no matter who we face. <\/p>\n

“We play at home, we had a good opportunity and unfortunately we couldn\u2019t go through.”<\/p>\n

Ask whether his players were losing control after they clashed with Tottenham fans away to Bournemouth, Frank said: “I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

“I guess you have seen the situation through? I just saw it to be sure I saw what I saw. Of course it\u2019s all about keeping a cool head.”<\/p>\n

\"Ollie<\/p>\n

Ugly scenes followed the final whistle when Watkins, who had previously played under Frank at Brentford, celebrated in front of Spurs players<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

He added: “The players gave everything, everything out there, (but) losing a tight game, season not going perfect and I think Ollie is very provoking.<\/p>\n

“The way he is going down to celebrate in front of the Villa fans and he is walking into Joao, he can just easily walk around. I think everyone that has been in a competitive nature, that is difficult and can trigger things.<\/p>\n

“You need to play with passion and when you play with passion then sometimes you play to the line and sometimes a little bit borderline.<\/p>\n

“I see players with big passion that want to do very well for the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AstonA mass brawl erupted between players as Aston Villa beat Tottenham | GETTY<\/p>\n

Unai Emery made six changes after a gruelling schedule for Villa, but they sealed a 13th win in 15 matches.<\/p>\n

The Aston Villa manager said: “After 90 minutes, with our momentum, with their momentum, I think we deserved to win.”<\/p>\n

“Of course we must respect the referee, we must respect the competition. Only we were a little bit angry because (Boubacar) Kamara was getting injured with one action with Palhinha, but I think the referee today did a fantastic job.<\/p>\n

“Some moments happened, with some players, and I think we can understand in the circumstances it happens on the field.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Frank blamed Ollie Watkins for sparking a post-match brawl and admitted he was left “hurt” following Tottenham’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,94,4884,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-687654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115873182168597236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}