Thomas Frank has confirmed Tottenham duo Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven apologised for ignoring their head coach at full-time following the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday.
Spurs were booed off at full-time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, having recorded their lowest ever xG (expected goals) figure of 0.05 since Opta records started in the 2012-13 campaign, before Frank approached his players on the pitch.
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Stand-in captain Van de Ven and Spence headed towards the tunnel and despite Frank seemingly telling them to thank the home support, they walked past the Danish boss who stared in their direction before he turned to applaud the crowd.
Sky Sports News understands Frank and Spence spoke after the game and their interaction on the pitch at full-time was just a sign of their frustration at losing, rather than anything more.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Champions League fixture against FC Copenhagen on Tuesday, Frank provided more detail on the situation.
“Micky and Djed came into my office yesterday and just said they wanted to say sorry for the situation. They didn’t want it to look bad or disrespectful,” he said.
“That was not their intention to me, the team or the club. They were just frustrated by the performance, loss and the booing during the game.”
Frank: We are all human, I will always protect my players
When pushed for further details on the meeting, which was unprompted and led by Spence and Van de Ven, Frank added: “If they didn’t come in, I would have to ask them about the situation. Of course, I was happy they came in as I knew the questions would come in today [Monday].
“We all have a perception [of why it happened]. That was my first question: how were they and why?
“It means they care, they care about the team and the club and in this case, me. That was very good. We had a good talk about a lot of things.
“Like everything, we keep it internally. It will be very, very unusual if I throw a player under the bus. We are all humans and I will always protect them.”
