Frank eyes chance for Spurs to take star billing on gala stage

“The time is now,” says the new head coach, who senses his well-prepared team can steal the limelight tonight against a PSG side who only returned to training last week

- Nick Ames

For your first trick, please show us Tottenham can trade blows with the best team Europe has produced this decade. If Thomas Frank wanted to make a statement two months after crossing London then defeating Paris Saint-Germain tonight would set this season's bar for performance somewhere beyond the stratosphere. His new role, or at least the relentless public scrutiny of it, begins in earnest beneath the Friulian foothills and it is an opportunity to form the kind of first impression that leaves a lasting signature.

Hearts have never been won or lost through showings in the Uefa Super Cup, which has traditionally been as much a late-summer beauty parade as a high-octane heave between the previous campaign’s big winners. There is certainly no guarantee that a hot night in the beguiling surroundings of Udine, whose modest solar-powered stadium has been feted for its environmental credentials, provides hard evidence of sustainable progress on the pitch.

Nonetheless there is, as Frank was keen to point out, an opportunity to take. It may be popularly held that Spurs stumbled upon the Europa League trophy in May; they certainly did not win many marks for artistic impression in doing so and the feat sat in direct contrast to a miserable league season. The latter, after all, is the reason for Frank’s presence.