Thomas Frank fires brutal dig at Eberechi Eze after snubbing Tottenham for Arsenal

Thomas Frank has fired a not-so-subtle message at Eberechi Eze after he snubbed Tottenham to join Arsenal. Eze is poised to sign for Arsenal from Crystal Palace after the Gunners hijacked Spurs’ move at the last moment.

Spurs had been in talks with Palace for some time over a deal for the 27-year-old midfielder. But Eze, a boyhood Arsenal fan and former member of their academy, had always preferred to join Mikel Arteta’s side.

So when Arsenal returned to the fray on Wednesday and made it clear they were willing to meet Palace’s asking price of £60million plus £7.5m in potential add-ons, there was only going to be one outcome. Eze sat out of Palace’s Conference League play-off first leg against Fredrikstad on Thursday and is now due to have a medical with Arsenal.

His snub came as a major blow to Spurs, who are desperate for creative reinforcements after James Maddison suffered a serious knee injury. But, speaking in a pre-match press conference ahead of Tottenham’s clash against Manchester City on Saturday, Frank tried to play down the significance of Eze’s decision.

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“I don't speak about specific players unless they are at our fantastic club,” he said. “There have been a lot of rumours including players linked when I think that's interesting because there's nothing in it. There have been a lot of links and lot of links in the future.

“In general, talking generally, I don't want any players that don't want to come to this club and wear this fantastic badge. We don't want them here and I'm sure the fans feel the same.”

Spurs are without Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski and Mirror Football understands they could turn to Monaco midfielder Maghnes Akliouche as their next target. They have now missed out on Eze and Morgan Gibbs-White, who signed a new deal with Nottingham Forest to rebuff their interest.

“Of course we need to do everything we can,” Frank added about transfers. “We have six good front players [and] that is very competitive. Kulusevski will come back this season, probably longer term with Maddison, I am also confident we will sign a player before the end of the window.”

Richarlison scored twice in their 3-0 win over Burnley last weekend and, after it was suggested he could move to Palace as part of a swap for Eze, Frank reassured fans of his status in the squad.

“Right now he is my starting No.9,” he said. “He scored two top goals. Richy wants to stay, I want to keep him and there's been no talks about anything else.

“I think we just played the first game and scored three goals so I think that was pretty promising. [Mohammed] Kudus has that spark and creativity. I think Mathys Tel can play in different positions. Dom [Solanke] and Richy can score goals and Brennan [Johnson] is our deep runner. We have variations.”

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