01 July 2023 , 06:15
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Tottenham and Daniel Levy are not relenting on their Harry Kane won't be sold stance.
The forward has entered the final 12 months of his deal and the noises around his potential departure have reached a volume we haven't heard before. Kane, who just scored 30 Premier League goals last season, remains at the peak of his powers and there is no shortage of interest in him.
Manchester United's priority this summer is adding a No 9 and Kane was their ideal target, but there is a huge reluctance from Tottenham to sell to a direct rival. Those at Old Trafford want the player to force through a move if a deal has any hope of being secured.
Bayern Munich represent an option in Europe, but it would certainly curtail Kane's hopes of becoming the all-time leading scorer in Premier League history - a major ambition. The Germans are yet to replace Robert Lewandowski and have identified the England marksman as the ideal man to fill the void.
No sale under any circumstances
The Bundesliga champions have, according to reports, lodged a £60m bid to test Tottenham's resolve. The north Londoners had placed Kane's value at closer to £100m, but potential suitors will be reluctant to go that far for a player who is on the market for nothing next summer.
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Bayern hold a slight advantage knowing they can begin negotiating with Kane from January and can put an offer to him, whereas English clubs don't have that luxury. Tottenham's ultimate hope is that their talisman sees promise in the early stages of Ange Postecoglou's tenure and decides to stick around.
Harry Kane is considering his options, but Tottenham don't want to sell (AP)Kane will be 30 this time next year and, should he pen a new deal, will almost certainly remain at Tottenham for life. His age is not particularly a factor for clubs with strikers remaining in their prime long into their 30s, as proved by the likes of Lewandowski and Karim Benzema.
Burned by Berbatov
Levy, whose reputation as one of football's most ruthless negotiators looks set to be enhanced this summer, has found himself fending off major clubs who come knocking for his prized assets in the past. Back in 2008, it was United who wanted his leading marksman, leading to a sense of deja vu with Kane.
Back then it was Dimitar Berbatov who the Red Devils wanted. The script played out much like this current Kane saga. Nine months before the Bulgarian's eventual sale to Manchester Levy had made clear: "Once again for the record, we are not a selling club, rather we are building for the future. When we have players on long contracts we have no need to entertain offers."
Dimitar Berbatov joined Man United late in the day in the summer of 2008 (GETTY)United, on this occasion, got their man, although Sir Alex Ferguson didn't resist digging at Levy and the manner of his negotiations. The problem for Tottenham however, who had also lost Robbie Keane that summer, was that the departure of Berbatov gave them no time to recover.
They got Frazier Campbell on a season-long loan as part of the deal and also added Russian Roman Pavlyuchenko, who scored just ten league goals in his first two seasons, earlier that summer. Tottenham's current stance regarding Kane is one they must see through if they want to avoid a repeat.
Kane scored 44 per cent of Tottenham's league goals last term and finding a replacement is an unenviable task, let alone one that can be achieved in the final moments of the window should Levy eventually relent and let the player go, albeit unlikely.
Bale plan backfires
One man the Tottenham chief did eventually allow to leave was Gareth Bale, who had just picked up his second PFA Player of the Year award in three seasons.
Gareth Bale eventually joined Real Madrid in 2013 (2013 Real Madrid)Real Madrid came knocking and, despite the Welshman recently signing a new deal, a world-record fee proved too much to turn down coupled with the player's desire to move on. It seemed though, despite constant admissions that Bale wouldn't be sold, that Tottenham were planning for his exit all along.
Andre Villas-Boas continued to invest in new talent, spending more than Tottenham usually would in any given summer. £109m was laid out - £30m of it on Erik Lamela, more than £20m on Roberto Soldado and a further £17m on Paulinho. Nacer Chadli, Étienne Capoue, Vlad Chiricheș and Christian Eriksen were all added.
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It was a quantity-over-quality approach. Yes, Tottenham couldn't sell Bale and bring in another world-class player due to not even being in the Champions League. But they could add seven good players that, across the year, would contribute in the same way Bale did.
That method was flawed. Villas-Boas paid the price with his job months later and Tottenham finished sixth. Three years after their mega recruitment drive only two of the seven additions remained.
The situation with Kane is much the same, if they cash in they simply cannot go and add a player of his talent, which is fundamentally why they cannot sell him if they want to remain competitive in Postecoglou's first year.