Spurs appeared set to seal a £67.5m (€78m) move for the Crystal Palace midfielder only for Arsenal to make their decisive move on Wednesday night.
Eze (27) had been released by Arsenal as a teenager but had never given up on the dream of making it big with Tottenham’s bitter rivals.
Spurs manager Frank did not mention Eze by name when previewing Saturday’s trip to Manchester City yet made his feelings clear about a transfer window that also included a failed attempt to land Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White in July.
“There have been a lot of links,” Frank said. “There’ll be a lot of links in the future and just to generalise that, to make it very, very clear: I don’t want any players that don’t want to come to the club, who don’t want to come to the club and wear this fantastic badge − we don’t want them here.
“I think that’s very clear, and \[I’m\] also pretty sure that the fans will feel the same if they don’t want to put the fantastic shirt over their head. Play for the badge, play for the club; really enjoy it. No problem, then we don’t them there. I think that’s a key message.
“I don’t know about whoever the players, whoever they support, I do not actually care too much about it. We all have a past.
“The main thing is if the player wants to come or doesn’t want to come. So if they are from Spain, Denmark, Brazil, it doesn’t matter; if they want to come, perfect.”
Eberechi Eze looks set to leave Crystal Palace for Arsenal. Photo: John Walton/PA.
Spurs have struggled to land targets this season, with Mohammed Kudus, who cost £55m from West Ham, and the loan signing of Joao Palhinha from Bayern Munich the only additions to boost their squad ahead of a campaign that also involves Champions League football. Now they have turned their attention to Monaco’s attacking midfielder Maghnes Akliouche.
Meanwhile, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski remain long-term absentees because of serious knee injuries. But Frank insisted: “I’m a positive guy. I’m not that fearful, if that makes sense. I believe that something will happen.
“Of course we need to do everything we can to make sure we are as competitive as possible. I think we’ve got six good front players that I think is very competitive, across all the competitions we’re going into, and then Kulusevski, he will come back in this season. I think that’s a big thing.
“It’s probably longer term with Maddison, unfortunately, but I am also pretty confident that we will sign a player before the end of the window.”