Thomas Frank says the humble personality of Christian Eriksen meant he did not need to “seduce” the Dane in order to convince him to join Brentford.
The addition of the former Tottenham playmaker has made news across the globe given it was only seven months ago he collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during Denmark’s Euro 2020 group fixture with Finland.
After being fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, a type of pacemaker, Eriksen was unable to continue his career in Italy with Inter Milan and completed a surprise Premier League return on 31 January.
Frank, who coached Eriksen in Denmark’s age-groups, said: “Besides being a top footballer and a world superstar, one of the things with Christian is that he is a very humble person and very down to earth.
“You can’t feel a sense that he is actually a superstar and that is a big quality in any human being that manages to behave like that.
“I think because of the circumstances and what happened, naturally some of the bigger clubs maybe weren’t that interested to take that risk or chance in the first sense. I think Christian was aware of that.
“If some of them had really called and told him ‘we want to play you’ then maybe he would have considered that more, maybe? I don’t know but I also think with this crazy experience he wants to do something he knows.
“Premier League, London, a club where he knows some of his team-mates already, has a relationship or Danish connection to me, so I think that definitely helped in his choice.
“I didn’t feel that I have to persuade him or seduce him like I normally do with other players. It was more explaining how our environment is and I thought naturally he would like it.”
Frank believes David Raya and Josh Dasilva will feel like new signings alongside Eriksen for the second half of the season.
First-choice goalkeeper Raya has not featured since October due to a knee issue but is in line to make a comeback at Everton on Saturday.
Dasilva has not played competitively for almost a year but is another who may be involved in this weekend’s FA Cup fourth-round tie.
“Both of them played a friendly against Aston Villa on Tuesday,” Frank added.
“David looked his normal self so now I just need to speak to my staff, Manu (Sotelo) our goalkeeper coach, about potentially starting him on Saturday. Let’s see for David, that would be fantastic news.
“Josh it was also his third game, he played 45 and 45 for the B-team and now 65 and he scored a goal.
“You can just see three or four of these top actions where I am just smiling when I watched the video back. There is a bit on the intensity and pressing game he needs still before he is up to his normal level but that was very positive.
“I would say we managed to sign three players this January window David Raya, Josh Dasilva and Christian Eriksen, not bad eh?”
According to Frank, Bees leaders Pontus Jansson, Christian Norgaard and Ivan Toney were “delighted, happy and pleased” about the club’s deadline-day signing, who will train with his new team-mates for the first time on Monday.
Forward Toney made headlines days before Eriksen completed his move after a video of him saying “f*** Brentford” emerged on social media. He later apologised.
“Definitely it is a thing Ivan needs to learn from and I am sure he will,” Frank insisted. “Situations like that he needs to cut out to maximise his potential.”
