Why Brentford were so desperate to keep Justin Cochrane away from Tottenham
Alasdair Gold has shed light on how important it was for Thomas Frank to bring some of his backroom staff with him to Tottenham Hotspur, especially Justin Cochrane.
We are still waiting for confirmation from Tottenham on their next head coach, and reports indicate that Thomas Frank’s appointment is expected to be announced within the coming hours or days.
Frank was tipped to bring some of his Brentford staff with him to Spurs. However, not all of them were expected to be easy to get, with one of his assistant coaches, Justin Cochrane, valued very highly by Brentford.
Fortunately, it was announced today that Tottenham have won their tug-of-war with Brentford over Cochrane, and the coach will now join Frank for the project in N17.
Why Brentford wanted to keep Justin Cochrane away from Tottenham
Alasdair Gold has now pointed out that since Brentford like to operate with a level of stability, they did not want to lose their entire first-team coaching staff to Tottenham Hotspur this summer.
The journalist explained that the Bees particularly wanted to hang on to Justin Cochrane, who was being groomed by the West London club as Thomas Frank’s successor.
Gold said on the Last Word on Spurs podcast: “Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, what a wild turnaround, though, from Ange who came in as this lone ranger and had to form a coaching staff around him. Thomas Frank has kind of built this really effective backroom staff behind him.
He added: “Justin Cochrane, I think, is a guy a bit like Brentford in this crazy world of being a stable club, actually have a succession plan and they often have someone, you know, Thomas Frank was the succession plan after Dean Smith, went and Justin Cochrane, I think is someone that they’ve been kind of grooming to potentially be the heir for Thomas Frank when he were to go.
“I think the issue there is, that Thomas Frank would probably like to bring him with him because he’s a really important part. Justin Cochrane, who is actually former Spurs. He used to work in the Spurs academy. Funnily enough, I think from what I understand, he is really good friends with Matty Wells as well.
“So there’s a kind of interesting little bit there, because from that side, from the Spurs perspective, while Nick Montgomery, Sergio Raimundo and Mile Jedinak have all kind of departed already, Matthew Wells and Rob Burch, who were there beforehand with the club.”
Spurs were right to push hard for Cochrane
Daniel Levy and the Tottenham hierarchy will want to give Frank the best possible tools to succeed and that includes bringing in all his most-trusted staff, especially Cochrane.
The fact that Brentford tried so hard to keep Cochrane tells you everything you need to know, especially because the Bees clearly see him as management material.
Tottenham just lost an important first-team coach with managerial experience in Ryan Mason, so it seems like a shrewd move to bring in another of the country’s leading young coaches to fill the void.
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