John Duggan writes that Harry Kane has not endeared himself to Tottenham fans by his transfer agitation, whether he leaves or not.
As a Tottenham Hotspur fan of 35 years, I have had reservations about Harry Kane since the Champions League final of 2019.
The England captain declared himself fit for the decider against Liverpool in Madrid and was ineffective in the game as Virgil van Dijk put him in his pocket. Kane's stature at the club meant that manager Mauricio Pochettino had to play him.
So Lucas Moura, who scored a hat-trick against Ajax to send Tottenham through against all odds, was left on the bench. Moura deserved to play. Pochettino was placed in an impossible position and it backfired.
It said to me that Harry Kane was looking out for himself.
The 28-year-old has been a brilliant servant for the club over the last decade, scoring 222 goals and playing the leading role as Tottenham produced their best football since the 1960s. That is beyond dispute.
It's not going to end well though.
Kane has been hankering after a move since it became clear that the Jose Mourinho experiment was doomed to failure. Chairman Daniel Levy gambled on Mourinho, but the bet was a losing one and Tottenham finished last season in seventh place with 62 points, 24 points off their best finish of the Pochettino era in 2017.
So Kane understandably feels that to win trophies, his future lies elsewhere, preferably at Premier League champions Manchester City.
He has clearly intimated that he had a 'Gentleman's Agreement' with Levy that the club would allow him to leave if they failed to finish in the top four or win a trophy last season. That is disputed by the club, who, if you believe the reports, would have been happy to sell Kane to the continent. It's all 'he said, she said'. It doesn't matter a bean. All that matters is the legal contract.
What the hell is a 'Gentleman's agreement'? Something from a Marlon Brando Godfather movie?
It's certainly not the real world, and when Harry Kane signed a six-year deal worth £200,000 per week in 2018 without a release clause, he was handing control over to Levy. The Chairman wants £150 million for his star asset. It's my understanding that relations between them are strained, not that you'd see that in an Amazon documentary.
This is a global business and anyone would know that Levy is one of the best negotiators in football, if not the best. He extracted the maximum value for Dimitar Berbatov and Gareth Bale. I have argued that Levy hasn't managed the football side of the business wonderfully (one League Cup in the trophy cabinet in 20 years), but he has managed the rest of the business magnificently.
The physical evidence of Levy's work is the wonderful, 21st Century stadium - the liquid evidence is long-term, manageable loans on it - and a valuation of £2 billion pounds on a club which was bought from Alan Sugar for a song. Incredible business.
For Harry Kane and his team not to have a release clause in his contract is staggering. He certainly could have afforded the lawyers to work all of this out and make it watertight. Now Levy can squeeze every oil dollar out of Manchester City, or failing that, have Kane's services for another season.
If the deal does not materialise, Kane will have to get with the program. His tardy return to the club after the European Championship was out of order, a petulant protest against his terms and conditions. He signed the contract and until he is sold, he has to honour it. He maintains his professionalism is as strong as ever, but Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Raheem Sterling and Declan Rice all started for their clubs last weekend. They had no issue returning in time. 80 percent of success in life is showing up.
The other thing that happened last weekend was that Spurs beat Manchester City 1-0, a performance full of heart. I think Nuno Espirito Santo will motivate the players and it seems Fabio Paratici has a talent for transfer dealings.
Time waits for no man, and with Kane wanting out, it may be best for Levy to sell him now if he can get close to his valuation. Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe will be available next summer and there's no guarantee Kane will be worth £150 million then. His performances at the Euros were mixed and his tendency to drop deep as he ages is not really the role of a pure number nine.
In my view, it's time for Tottenham to say goodbye to the England skipper and build afresh, with Heung Min Son as the fulcrum of the attack, supported by new signings. I never thought Spurs would recover from the sale of Bale first time around, but they regrouped with a young team under Pochettino. One of those players was Harry Kane. If he's no longer 'one of our own', it's time to thank him for the memories and find others that will be.
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