Frank: Our form kept us from fall
THOMAS FRANK has slammed talk Brentford would have gone down without Christian Eriksen.
The Bees chief, whose side won eight of their final 11 Premier
League games after Eriksen’s
January capture, reckons those claiming the Danish ace – now at Manchester United – spared them relegation are clueless and blinkered.
Ahead of today’s opener at Leicester, Frank insisted:
“People saying Christian kept us in the Premier
League either they don’t know what they’re talking about or are very singleminded, if I’m being very harsh.
“Obviously, he’s a top player. Obviously, he helped us. But I’m convinced we would have stayed in the Premier League anyway.
“The day he stepped into the building coincided with some of our key players coming back from injury – and they stayed fit until the end of the season.
“Other considerations are we had a good start and then performed consistently well throughout the season…even in our bad patch.
“They’re my reasons why we’d have been okay – although maybe not quite as fluent or good looking as with Christian around.”
Frank believes Bees supporters fuming about Eriksen’s summer exit to a club not even in the Champions League need to cut the guy some slack.
“We can’t demand what supporters feel, which is a good thing,’’ added the Danish coach. “But nobody’s perfect.
“We all say things at some stage in life that we change our minds about later on. He found out it (United) was his better option. That’s only human and natural.”
Someone likely to be in for a tough ride from the Brentford faithful this afternoon is Leicester hitman Jamie Vardy.
The retired England striker is sure to be taunted over his wife Rebekah’s failed legal scrap with Coleen Rooney.
But Frank has only glowing words for Vardy’s prolific career with club and country. “I definitely think Vardy’s story is fantastic,” he said. “He’s an example for lots of players coming through non-league to keep going.”