"For sure, if I ever got the offer to go to a big club and I decided to go there, it would probably not make my life better. I think we all know that."
So said Thomas Frank in October last year, when the then-Brentford manager was being touted for vacancy that would soon open up at Manchester United with Erik ten Hag's dismissal.
Thomas Frank might need time to get Tottenham firing - but will he get it?
Six months into the job, Frank's Tottenham sit 11th in the table, level on points with Brentford, with the Dane already under scrutiny after a poor run of recent form.
Tottenham have not won any of their past five Premier League games, a run that stretches back to October, and which featured a particularly punishing 4-1 defeat away to arch-rivals Arsenal.
You have to go all the way back to the opening day of the season for Spurs' only home win in the league - a 3-0 victory over newly-promoted Burnley.
Boos have rung out from the stands at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for months as a result. Even wretched Wolves took a point away from their visit to North London.
Frank stepped into particularly dangerous territory last week when he criticised fans for making their feelings clear during Spurs' 2-1 defeat to Fulham, with Guglielmo Vicario receiving a particularly vociferous reaction. While Frank acknowledged the fans' right to boo after a game, he was irritated that it had occurred while the game was still in progress.
Much as Frank is right to try and shield his players, his words drew a sharp intake of breath from FourFourTwo. When a manager is that much at odds with his club's supporters, it is rarely a good sign. More often than not, things only grow even more sour.
Frank had it bang on last year: things are different at a bigger club, and not necessarily for the better.
We have phenomenal respect for the job Frank did at Brentford. Leading a side from perennially mid-table in the Championship to perennially mid-table in the Premier League is a hugely difficult job that strikingly few managers have pulled off in recent years.
But Frank always struck us as a long-term project manager, rather than the kind of instant fix the new Tottenham regime surely wanted after a hugely disappointing season under Ange Postecoglou last season - Europa League title notwithstanding.
It took the better part of three seasons for Frank to earn promotion to the Premier League; by the time they got there, he was one of the longest-serving bosses in the country, such is the turnover in modern management.
It's a trite point to make, those kinds of managers rarely get the level of time and forgiveness at big six clubs that they can eke out further down the football pecking order.
Whether it's Postecoglou or Nuno Espirito Santo at Tottenham and Nottingham Forest, Graham Potter (and plenty of others) at Chelsea, or a fleet of Manchester United managers, the pressure to deliver immediate results is intense. And...well, rightly so, given the enormous financial advantage they have.
Crucially, tactics that are more acceptable at 'smaller' clubs no longer hold sway with fans who have expectations of playing a certain way.
Frank threaded the needle superbly at Brentford, finding a way to marry pragmatism to an attractive and stylish method of playing that delivered plenty of excitement - even as his star players were constantly getting picked off by clubs with more financial clout.
Now he's on the other side of the equation, though, pragmatism can feel like a dirty word.
Frank was particularly heavily criticised for his defensive approach against Arsenal as he shifted to a back five and appeared to have tasked his players with hitting Mikel Arteta's side with long balls. It was a spectacular failure, not at all helped by his players being absolutely rotten both on and off the ball. Spurs ended the game with the lowest xG recorded by a Premier League side this season.
The accusation after that game was that Frank has over-corrected from the incredibly gung-ho style Postecoglou played last season, and there may be something in that: Tottenham have drastically outperformed their expected goals this season, suggesting that their goal return far outstrips the quality of chances they actually create.
Frank will remain confident in his ability to turn things around; the question is whether he will get the time from the stands and from the boardroom to do so.
A win against his former beloved Brentford would be a start, at least.
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