Frank urges ‘real’ Spurs fans to back Tel after racist abuse

Thomas Frank urged Tottenham fans to back Mathys Tel in Saturday’s Premier League opener against Burnley after the French forward was racially abused this week.

Tel endured racist taunts on social media following his missed penalty in the shoot-out defeat against Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday.

Tottenham said they were “disgusted” at the abuse and Tel’s team-mates Dominic Solanke and Richarlison sent messages of support online.

Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out warned players may think twice about taking penalties in the future after the abuse of the 20-year-old.

Ahead of former Brentford boss Frank’s first league game in charge of Tottenham, the Dane demanded Tel be shown love and respect from supporters in north London this weekend.

“It’s of course terrible what happened to Matty and we’re doing everything we can to support him in this situation,” Frank told reporters on Friday.

“He’s a strong person and with hopefully the support from his family, friends and us he will get through it, but also there’s no real Tottenham supporter that will ever do that.

“The real Tottenham supporters that we’ll see tomorrow at the stadium, they’ll back him, I expect them to.

“Listen, in tough times we step up together and I expect the fans to give him a really, really, really big cheer tomorrow.”

Tel will be part of the matchday squad alongside Yves Bissouma, who was dropped for the Super Cup clash after being late on multiple occasions for training this summer.

“There was a situation. I addressed this. There was a consequence. Bissouma will be in the squad tomorrow. Move forward and we have a big game,”  said Frank.

The Mali midfielder has entered the final year of his contract, anf his future could still be away from Tottenham as the club remain active in the transfer window.

Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze and Manchester City attacker Savinho are reportedly  targets, but Frank refused to be drawn on specific names.

“In many ways, I’m very happy with the squad. I think there’s a lot of good players,” he said.

“Of course, we want as strong and competitive a squad as possible. I know that Daniel (Levy), Johan (Lange) and Vinai (Venkatesham) are working night and day.”

Saturday will mark Frank’s Tottenham home debut after he replaced the sacked Ange Postecoglou in the close-season.

Frank is under pressure to improve on Tottenham’s dismal 17th place finish in the Premier League last season, with their Europa League final victory over Manchester United not enough to save Postecoglou.

“I know when I wake up tomorrow and I know when I step into the stadium that I will feel a little butterflies no doubt,” Frank said.

“That’ll be the first time, so that’ll be special.”