Harry Kane Not Welcome Here

[johnny crossan]

Never wanted him anyway - glue factory before long I reckon

[Dubaimancityfan]

Glad it’s over and we can move on to (possibly) other options. I was never excited about Kane but know that he did want to come, so can’t blame him. Fuck Levy !

[branny]

Not too fussed about getting Kane but in a window where Messi and Lukaku have moved, if we don’t have a plan b it’s a shit show that will end up costing us this season.

[johnny crossan]

The story of how Harry Kane took on Daniel Levy and lost

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Sam Lee and more 7h ago 254


It would have been the third-biggest transfer in football history, but there was something decidedly low-key about the way Harry Kane called it off. Kane tweeted that he would be staying at Tottenham shortly before Nuno Espirito Santo gave his press conference ahead of Spurs’ Europa Conference League qualification play-off second leg against Pacos de Ferreira. He had already told Nuno on Wednesday morning that he would stay, finally drawing a line under an interminable saga.

For all of the energy and attention that this story has commanded, no one should be too surprised by the result. And the situation we are left with is that things are almost precisely as they were at the end of last season: Kane still plays for Spurs and is still contracted until 2024. Manchester City are still without an experienced striker, following Sergio Aguero’s free-agent departure for Barcelona. Daniel Levy still calls the shots at Tottenham.

Months of talk have barely moved the situation at all. But the basic facts of the saga are as follows:

Levy was furious with the way Kane tried to bounce him into the move at the end of last season
City offered five players in May and £75 million plus £25million of add-ons in June, then made no further bids
They were prepared to pay a fixed £100 million plus £20-or-so million in add-ons, but Levy refused to negotiate
Spurs fined Kane two weeks’ wages for delaying his return to pre-season training
With the two clubs not talking since late July, the move had been dead for weeks despite Kane’s hopes
All three parties need to agree for any transfer to happen but the simple story of this non-deal is that there was never enough political will to get it over the line. Kane desperately wanted to go to City, of course, but he came up against the stubbornness of Levy, who was adamant that his best player should stay at Spurs. And if that put the onus on City to persuade him otherwise, they were unable to do so.

While Kane’s line-drawing Wednesday morning tweet referred gratefully to the reception he got from Spurs fans at their game with Wolves last Sunday, there is no avoiding the fact that the failure of this potential transfer represents a defeat for him. Kane had wanted to go to City all year. He made that abundantly clear from his interview with Gary Neville in May through to his delayed return to join Tottenham’s pre-season on August 7. If Kane had his way, he would be lining up in a blue shirt at the Etihad Stadium this Saturday lunchtime for a City debut against Arsenal. Instead, he has to pick up the pieces of his damaged relationship with Spurs and knuckle down for another long season.

If this was a defeat for Kane, it is also a win for Levy. He had been insistent all summer that Kane would not be sold, especially not to another Premier League club. Those close to Levy have always known that this was not a negotiating position, but a firm commitment.

Part of Levy’s position was coldly rational. He knew this would be a bad market in which to sell a top player, and that Tottenham would always be better off keeping Kane for at least one more year. By the end of next season, they would either have improved their situation enough to convince Kane to stay long-term, or they could sell him in a more buoyant market for at least as much as they were offered in 2021. The fact that City’s only cash bid for Kane was £75 million up front with another £25 million of add-ons has effectively proven Levy right. There was nothing to be gained from selling the striker this summer.
The other part of Levy’s insistence on keeping Kane was personal. He felt deeply affronted by the conduct of Kane and his family throughout this process, from the leaking of Kane’s desire to leave and that Neville interview right at the climax of Spurs’ season in late May, through to Kane’s unauthorised absence from pre-season training at the start of this month (which cost him two weeks’ wages). Levy saw this as a challenge to his authority, which made him even more keen not to get pushed around. Maybe with a more delicate approach, Kane might have succeeded, but Levy was insistent from early on that he would not be giving in.

Clearly, this summer has been handled poorly by the Kane camp, who failed to land the deal between City and Tottenham that they were relying on. But City have not got what they wanted either. All summer, they have needed an experienced replacement for Aguero, and while they have added Jack Grealish, they now have six days of the window left to sign a true striker. They have wasted months chasing a player Levy never had any intention of selling. For City and for Kane, the politics and the money never quite added up.

The roots of this long saga started last summer. City, trying to sharpen up their team to win back the Premier League title Liverpool had just claimed, made an enquiry about Kane, which Levy firmly rejected. But the player was interested in the prospect of a move to the Etihad and sought assurances from Levy that he would be allowed to leave in future.

While Kane believes he was promised he could leave after the 2020-21 season, especially if Tottenham did not get back into the Champions League, an alternative view at the north London club is that Levy merely said he would listen to offers for him. Not that he would be allowed to leave. The precise nature of this so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between Levy and Kane has been one of the key themes of this summer.

There was some frustration with Kane at the start of last season, as he had to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from holiday in the Bahamas in line with COVID-19 protocols at the time. This meant he missed a large portion of a pandemic-curtailed pre-season. When Spurs opened with a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Everton, he looked undercooked, struggling to physically compete. Towards the end of the game, then-manager Jose Mourinho ran out of patience, barking out at the England captain, “Come on, let’s make a fucking effort?”

But it did not take long for Kane to get back up to speed. In Spurs’ next league game a week later, he delivered four assists for Son Heung-min in a 5-2 win at Southampton. And in those first few months of the season, when Tottenham flew to the top of the table, and it briefly felt as if the Mourinho appointment might be a masterstroke, Kane was integral to everything good that Spurs did.

While some team-mates had their doubts about Mourinho, his tactics and his methods, Kane was one of the most loyal players to Mourinho through his 17-month tenure.

He saw Mourinho as a like-minded figure, with a shared commitment to finally winning Tottenham a first trophy since February 2008 as soon as possible, by whatever means necessary. Right up until Mourinho’s sacking in April, he was described as being willing to “run through a wall” for his manager. (The full extent of Kane’s support is underlined by his comments in that Neville interview released a month later, when his analysis of why the Mourinho era did not work out — “Jose expected us to be men… we didn’t have enough leadership” — was exactly what the now Roma coach himself would say.)

The other part of Levy’s insistence on keeping Kane was personal. He felt deeply affronted by the conduct of Kane and his family throughout this process, from the leaking of Kane’s desire to leave and that Neville interview right at the climax of Spurs’ season in late May, through to Kane’s unauthorised absence from pre-season training at the start of this month (which cost him two weeks’ wages). Levy saw this as a challenge to his authority, which made him even more keen not to get pushed around. Maybe with a more delicate approach, Kane might have succeeded, but Levy was insistent from early on that he would not be giving in.

Clearly, this summer has been handled poorly by the Kane camp, who failed to land the deal between City and Tottenham that they were relying on. But City have not got what they wanted either. All summer, they have needed an experienced replacement for Aguero, and while they have added Jack Grealish, they now have six days of the window left to sign a true striker. They have wasted months chasing a player Levy never had any intention of selling. For City and for Kane, the politics and the money never quite added up.

The roots of this long saga started last summer. City, trying to sharpen up their team to win back the Premier League title Liverpool had just claimed, made an enquiry about Kane, which Levy firmly rejected. But the player was interested in the prospect of a move to the Etihad and sought assurances from Levy that he would be allowed to leave in future.

While Kane believes he was promised he could leave after the 2020-21 season, especially if Tottenham did not get back into the Champions League, an alternative view at the north London club is that Levy merely said he would listen to offers for him. Not that he would be allowed to leave. The precise nature of this so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between Levy and Kane has been one of the key themes of this summer.

There was some frustration with Kane at the start of last season, as he had to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from holiday in the Bahamas in line with COVID-19 protocols at the time. This meant he missed a large portion of a pandemic-curtailed pre-season. When Spurs opened with a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Everton, he looked undercooked, struggling to physically compete. Towards the end of the game, then-manager Jose Mourinho ran out of patience, barking out at the England captain, “Come on, let’s make a fucking effort?”

But it did not take long for Kane to get back up to speed. In Spurs’ next league game a week later, he delivered four assists for Son Heung-min in a 5-2 win at Southampton. And in those first few months of the season, when Tottenham flew to the top of the table, and it briefly felt as if the Mourinho appointment might be a masterstroke, Kane was integral to everything good that Spurs did.

While some team-mates had their doubts about Mourinho, his tactics and his methods, Kane was one of the most loyal players to Mourinho through his 17-month tenure.

He saw Mourinho as a like-minded figure, with a shared commitment to finally winning Tottenham a first trophy since February 2008 as soon as possible, by whatever means necessary. Right up until Mourinho’s sacking in April, he was described as being willing to “run through a wall” for his manager. (The full extent of Kane’s support is underlined by his comments in that Neville interview released a month later, when his analysis of why the Mourinho era did not work out — “Jose expected us to be men… we didn’t have enough leadership” — was exactly what the now Roma coach himself would say.)

The other part of Levy’s insistence on keeping Kane was personal. He felt deeply affronted by the conduct of Kane and his family throughout this process, from the leaking of Kane’s desire to leave and that Neville interview right at the climax of Spurs’ season in late May, through to Kane’s unauthorised absence from pre-season training at the start of this month (which cost him two weeks’ wages). Levy saw this as a challenge to his authority, which made him even more keen not to get pushed around. Maybe with a more delicate approach, Kane might have succeeded, but Levy was insistent from early on that he would not be giving in.

Clearly, this summer has been handled poorly by the Kane camp, who failed to land the deal between City and Tottenham that they were relying on. But City have not got what they wanted either. All summer, they have needed an experienced replacement for Aguero, and while they have added Jack Grealish, they now have six days of the window left to sign a true striker. They have wasted months chasing a player Levy never had any intention of selling. For City and for Kane, the politics and the money never quite added up.

The roots of this long saga started last summer. City, trying to sharpen up their team to win back the Premier League title Liverpool had just claimed, made an enquiry about Kane, which Levy firmly rejected. But the player was interested in the prospect of a move to the Etihad and sought assurances from Levy that he would be allowed to leave in future.

While Kane believes he was promised he could leave after the 2020-21 season, especially if Tottenham did not get back into the Champions League, an alternative view at the north London club is that Levy merely said he would listen to offers for him. Not that he would be allowed to leave. The precise nature of this so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between Levy and Kane has been one of the key themes of this summer.

There was some frustration with Kane at the start of last season, as he had to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from holiday in the Bahamas in line with COVID-19 protocols at the time. This meant he missed a large portion of a pandemic-curtailed pre-season. When Spurs opened with a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Everton, he looked undercooked, struggling to physically compete. Towards the end of the game, then-manager Jose Mourinho ran out of patience, barking out at the England captain, “Come on, let’s make a fucking effort?”

But it did not take long for Kane to get back up to speed. In Spurs’ next league game a week later, he delivered four assists for Son Heung-min in a 5-2 win at Southampton. And in those first few months of the season, when Tottenham flew to the top of the table, and it briefly felt as if the Mourinho appointment might be a masterstroke, Kane was integral to everything good that Spurs did.

While some team-mates had their doubts about Mourinho, his tactics and his methods, Kane was one of the most loyal players to Mourinho through his 17-month tenure.

He saw Mourinho as a like-minded figure, with a shared commitment to finally winning Tottenham a first trophy since February 2008 as soon as possible, by whatever means necessary. Right up until Mourinho’s sacking in April, he was described as being willing to “run through a wall” for his manager. (The full extent of Kane’s support is underlined by his comments in that Neville interview released a month later, when his analysis of why the Mourinho era did not work out — “Jose expected us to be men… we didn’t have enough leadership” — was exactly what the now Roma coach himself would say.)

But as Tottenham’s season fell away, to finish not just out of the top four Champions League spots but out of the Europa League too, Kane’s intentions solidified. He wanted 2020-21 to be his final season at the club, ending a 17-year association with Spurs. And he believed that having given it his all last season, he was entitled to a departure on good terms. He wanted it wrapped up before the start of the European Championship in early June. And his England team-mates knew it, as Kane openly discussed life in Manchester with them during the March international break.

At that point, with a few weeks of the season left, it felt as if Manchester City and neighbours United could be equally likely destinations for Kane. He would rather stay in the Premier League than go abroad and was reluctant to go to Spurs’ London rivals Chelsea because he did not want to sabotage his legacy with his boyhood club’s fans. And before United turned their attention to Jadon Sancho, they might well have led the chase.

The view at Tottenham during those latter stages of last season was that the conditions were simply not there for Kane to get his wish of a move. He still had three years left on the six-year deal he signed in June 2018, meaning Levy had no real incentive to let him go this summer. Especially as it was unclear just what the market would be for Kane in this window, and whether any of the interested clubs would offer enough money to tempt him to sell.

A likelier outcome, it was assumed at this point, was that Levy would persuade Kane to give him one more year, and that if Tottenham were unsuccessful again, then he could be sold in the, presumably, more buoyant summer 2022 market instead. But Kane did not want to do one more year just to satisfy Levy. In his mind, by staying for 2020-21, he’d already done that.

The news that Kane wanted out was first broken in The Athletic on April 10, in the final week of Mourinho’s tenure, but it was not until May that his intentions were out in the open.

On May 17, Sky Sports News reported that Kane had asked to leave Tottenham, and three days later an interview with Neville’s The Overlap was released online, in which Kane spoke with remarkable candour about his desire to leave Tottenham.

Kane told Neville he wanted to be involved in the “biggest games” again, which he no longer was, that he planned to have a “good, honest conversation” with Levy about his future, and speculated that the Spurs chairman might even want to sell him this summer for £100 million before his value started to drop as he neared 30. And Kane made a prediction: “Ultimately it’s going to be down to me, and how I feel, and what’s going to be the best for me and my career at this moment in time.”

The cold reality of this summer, however, has shown that Kane did not have as much power as he hoped. Ultimately, it was down to Levy, and how he felt.

As soon as the Neville interview came out, there could be no doubting how much Kane wanted to leave the club. When Spurs played their last home game of the season against Aston Villa — another miserable 2-1 defeat — the day before the interview’s release, Kane walked solemnly around the edge of the pitch at the end, waving goodbye to the fans he thought he would be seeing as “one of their own” for the final time.

In the final game of the season, four days later away to Leicester City, Kane scored in a 4-2 win that secured a third Premier League Golden Boot for him and a seventh-place finish for his club.

If Kane thought the events of that week had made it easier for him to get his move, and that his position had been set out clearly but respectfully, then the Tottenham hierarchy took the opposite view.

When the story broke on Sky Sports, the club took the very unusual step of issuing an on-the-record statement reminding Kane of his professional responsibilities for the week. “Our focus is on finishing the season as strongly as possible,” said a club spokesperson. “That’s what everyone should be focused on.”

Behind the scenes, Levy and the people who run Tottenham were furious, both with Kane’s challenge to their authority and his timing. The feeling was that he had blithely disrupted Spurs’ season at the worst possible moment. At this point, Tottenham were still meant to be fighting for European qualification. There was a sense among the hierarchy that Kane’s behaviour had undermined Ryan Mason, the interim head coach, forcing him to answer endless media questions about the striker’s future — questions that Kane was not facing himself. Kane and Mason were meant to be close friends, after all. (There was no sign of an issue between them during the subsequent Euros, when Mason was a guest of Kane’s for England’s games at Wembley.)

There was also a feeling at Tottenham that Kane’s tactics would do him more harm than good.

Levy has in the past been willing to sell some of their best players for big fees. But he only likes to sell them on his terms (£30.75 million for Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United, £85 million for Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, £53 million for Kyle Walker to Manchester City), and he does not like to be pushed into anything.

So for the Kane camp to try to exert public pressure on him by talking about a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, the terms of which were seriously disputed, was seen as counter-productive in the extreme, and a product of the bad, inexperienced advice the player was getting. Levy was backed into a corner and was in no mood to let Kane get his way.

The first time City reached out to Levy about signing Kane, it did not get very far. They said they would like to discuss Kane’s future with him, but that any discussion would have to involve them sending players to Spurs in part-exchange. Levy asked who, and the five names offered were Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Aymeric Laporte and Riyad Mahrez. Levy was not interested. There was also no indication that these players would have agreed to go to Tottenham.

Kane had wanted his future resolved by the time the Euros started on June 11, but by the end of May it was very clear that would not happen. Levy, remember, did not sanction the sales of Berbatov or Bale until the very end of those transfer windows, or of Walker until minutes before City and Spurs were due to depart on pre-season tours in the United States. In negotiations like this, time is leverage, and Levy had no incentive to strike a quick deal.

Off Kane went to captain his country, still very much a Tottenham player. And when he struggled to get into England’s first few games, not scoring in the tournament until the last-16 game against Germany, he faced questions about whether the transfer saga, still at this point only a few weeks old, was starting to distract him. Kane, one of life’s compartmentalisers, insisted he was “fully focused” on the job of trying to make England champions of Europe.

Meanwhile, at Tottenham, Levy was trying to get the club back on track for the new season, and that meant finally appointing a replacement for Mourinho.

In late May and early June, they were aiming for a top-end hire, such as Antonio Conte or the return of Mourinho’s fan-favourite predecessor Mauricio Pochettino. While club figures did not think that such an appointment would instantly sway Kane to want to stay, there was a feeling doing so might make it easier for Levy to say no to Kane, and tell him to play one more season as Spurs tried to get back on track.

So when Fabio Paratici, Spurs’ new managing director of football, was looking around Italy in mid-June, speaking to managerial candidates, he was making it very clear to people that Kane would be a Tottenham player for the coming season. But as the managerial hunt dragged on far longer than anyone could have expected, people started to wonder what it might mean for Kane. One popular view was that it would push him out, that he would be even more desperate to leave, and that Levy would have no authority to say no after bungling the search for a new head coach so badly.

Yet an alternative view at the club was that the more embarrassing the managerial search was for Tottenham, the more pressure Levy would be under to keep hold of Kane. He could not afford for a difficult summer to become a disastrous one.

When City came in with their first cash bid, in late June, it did not get very far. The £100 million offer, or more precisely £75 million up front and £25 million in various add-ons, was far away from what would have been needed just to give Levy something to think about. It did nothing to move the Spurs chairman from his conviction that Kane would not be sold this summer, and certainly not to another club in the Premier League.

Two years ago Kane might have been a target for Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Juventus, but football’s economic landscape has changed, and those teams cannot afford the biggest stars anymore (This was weeks before Madrid’s massive, already-rejected bid for Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe). So a move within the Premier League was Kane’s only option, and one Levy was determined to block.

With City having made their first two approaches, and Spurs having rebuffed both, the attention switched to Kane himself. What would he do to try to force his way out?

In 2013, when Bale wanted to leave for Real Madrid, he did not show up for pre-season training in order to force the issue, and it worked. At the end of that summer window, Levy agreed an £85 million deal for the Welshman to go to the Bernabeu. But the expectation this summer was that Kane would not try the same tactics. He had always been a good professional at Spurs, always desperate to play every game, and keep scoring goals. As much as he wanted to leave, he would not down tools to try to make it happen.

Kane, it should be remembered, did not want to have to force things either. His hope, at the end of last season, was that this could all be resolved quickly and amicably without his having to resort to any extra machinations. He thought that he would be able to leave with Levy’s blessing. But in a meeting on July 16, five days after England lost the Euros final in a penalty shootout with Italy, Paratici reiterated the club’s position to the Kane camp. And when Kane flew off to the Bahamas, to a resort co-owned by Spurs’ owner Joe Lewis, on his summer holiday, he sensed that something had to change.

Tottenham had told Kane they expected him back to prepare for pre-season training on Monday, August 2 — a three-week break after the final of the Euros. But when that day came, he was still away, having headed from the Bahamas to another resort in Florida before returning home. While Kane believes this was down to a breakdown in communication between himself and the club, and that he had been granted extended leave, the view at Tottenham is that he knew when he was expected back. Kane was fined two weeks’ wages for his late return.

Kane did not return to Hotspur Way until August 7, a Saturday, having issued a statement on social media saying that he was “hurt” by those “questioning his professionalism”, and insisting that he “would never” refuse to train.

With Kane back at Spurs Lodge, the on-site accommodation at the training ground, he was left training by himself until COVID-19 regulations allowed him to rejoin the whole group. On the Monday, August 9, Paratici held a three-hour meeting with him, during which Kane repeatedly reiterated his own desire to leave, and Paratici made clear that the club would not be selling.

On the Thursday afternoon, Kane completed his day-five “test to release” PCR test, the negative result of which cleared him to train with the group next morning. But those Friday and Saturday sessions were not enough to get Kane ready to play in Tottenham’s August 15 season opener against… Manchester City.

Tottenham, with Son up front, put in a brilliant performance that Sunday, winning the game 1-0 and tearing through the Premier League champions on the break. By the end, Spurs fans were singing “Are you watching Harry Kane?”, pointing to the fact that on the evidence of this one particular game, City missed Kane more than Tottenham did.

But if City needed Kane so much, why were they not showing it? No one from the City hierarchy discussed the signing of Kane with Spurs when they were at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that afternoon. Levy’s stonewall tactics, refusing to even negotiate with them or pick up the phone, appeared to have worked.

One view of this period is that City did surprisingly little to indicate their desire to sign Kane. At the moment when Kane’s relationship with Tottenham was most fraught, they did not come in with an improved offer.

City are never usually reluctant to spend big when they especially want a player. They showed that by paying the £100 million release clause to sign Grealish from Aston Villa on August 5. But with Kane, City were slow to come in with a higher offer, to give Levy something to think about. And it has raised the question: Did the rest of the City hierarchy want Kane, who turned 28 last month, as much as their manager Pep Guardiola himself did?

For Guardiola, Kane was hugely attractive, given his Premier League experience, his intelligence to play as a No 9 or a No 10, his instinctive understanding of the game. He could have fitted into City’s play far smoother than the awkward power of Borussia Dortmund’s 21-year-old striker Erling Haaland. On August 6, Guardiola took the unusual step of calling Kane an “exceptional, extraordinary striker” in his pre-Spurs match press conference.

An alternative view is that with Levy having made it crystal clear that he would not be negotiating with City to sell them Kane, there was little to be gained from coming back in with an offer that would not get anywhere. City would have been willing to go up to £100 million up front and £20 million more in add-ons to sign Kane, but they never had the slightest indication that doing so would have been worthwhile.

And while City have just spent £100 million on Grealish, they have traditionally been reluctant to get into bidding wars for established stars, pulling out of interest in Alexis Sanchez, Harry Maguire and Jorginho in recent years when they became too expensive. Maybe signing the two England team-mates this summer for a combined £220 million-plus would have been too much of a departure from their normal policy.

Either way, with Levy even more adamant by the day that Kane would not be sold, and City unable to persuade him otherwise, the situation was at an impasse. And that impasse was just what Levy had been hoping for.

As August dragged on with no big new bid, it became increasingly clear to everyone close to the situation that Levy had won. Even though plenty of junior staff at City believed Kane was on his way to their club, the reality was that it was never truly on the cards.

Kane continued to train and recover his match sharpness. He was not quite ready for the Europa Conference League play-off first leg away to Portugal’s Pacos de Ferreira last Thursday, but by then he too sensed City would not be coming back with a huge amount of money, enough to buy him out of the three years left on his deal.

And when Spurs went to Molineux on Sunday, second-half substitute Kane was roared onto the pitch by the away end.

They all knew then what Kane would make explicit yesterday: that he would remain one of their own for a bit longer.

[ENIAM NAM]

Got a feeling of deja vu reading all that…..

[City64]

Some fucking boring episode that was .

[johnny crossan]

Some fucking boring episode that was .

Got a free sub to the Athletic with my BT Sport App - sorry

(For years Pitt Brooke used to do a City blog "The Lonesome Death of Roy Carroll" - then he changed )

[dave watson's perm]

Well if as stated the deal has been dead since late July then hopefully we have been conducting new striker business elsewhere in that time

[Indianablue]

The story of how Harry Kane took on Daniel Levy and lost

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Sam Lee and more 7h ago 254


It would have been the third-biggest transfer in football history, but there was something decidedly low-key about the way Harry Kane called it off. Kane tweeted that he would be staying at Tottenham shortly before Nuno Espirito Santo gave his press conference ahead of Spurs’ Europa Conference League qualification play-off second leg against Pacos de Ferreira. He had already told Nuno on Wednesday morning that he would stay, finally drawing a line under an interminable saga.

For all of the energy and attention that this story has commanded, no one should be too surprised by the result. And the situation we are left with is that things are almost precisely as they were at the end of last season: Kane still plays for Spurs and is still contracted until 2024. Manchester City are still without an experienced striker, following Sergio Aguero’s free-agent departure for Barcelona. Daniel Levy still calls the shots at Tottenham.

Months of talk have barely moved the situation at all. But the basic facts of the saga are as follows:

Levy was furious with the way Kane tried to bounce him into the move at the end of last season
City offered five players in May and £75 million plus £25million of add-ons in June, then made no further bids
They were prepared to pay a fixed £100 million plus £20-or-so million in add-ons, but Levy refused to negotiate
Spurs fined Kane two weeks’ wages for delaying his return to pre-season training
With the two clubs not talking since late July, the move had been dead for weeks despite Kane’s hopes
All three parties need to agree for any transfer to happen but the simple story of this non-deal is that there was never enough political will to get it over the line. Kane desperately wanted to go to City, of course, but he came up against the stubbornness of Levy, who was adamant that his best player should stay at Spurs. And if that put the onus on City to persuade him otherwise, they were unable to do so.

While Kane’s line-drawing Wednesday morning tweet referred gratefully to the reception he got from Spurs fans at their game with Wolves last Sunday, there is no avoiding the fact that the failure of this potential transfer represents a defeat for him. Kane had wanted to go to City all year. He made that abundantly clear from his interview with Gary Neville in May through to his delayed return to join Tottenham’s pre-season on August 7. If Kane had his way, he would be lining up in a blue shirt at the Etihad Stadium this Saturday lunchtime for a City debut against Arsenal. Instead, he has to pick up the pieces of his damaged relationship with Spurs and knuckle down for another long season.

If this was a defeat for Kane, it is also a win for Levy. He had been insistent all summer that Kane would not be sold, especially not to another Premier League club. Those close to Levy have always known that this was not a negotiating position, but a firm commitment.

Part of Levy’s position was coldly rational. He knew this would be a bad market in which to sell a top player, and that Tottenham would always be better off keeping Kane for at least one more year. By the end of next season, they would either have improved their situation enough to convince Kane to stay long-term, or they could sell him in a more buoyant market for at least as much as they were offered in 2021. The fact that City’s only cash bid for Kane was £75 million up front with another £25 million of add-ons has effectively proven Levy right. There was nothing to be gained from selling the striker this summer.
The other part of Levy’s insistence on keeping Kane was personal. He felt deeply affronted by the conduct of Kane and his family throughout this process, from the leaking of Kane’s desire to leave and that Neville interview right at the climax of Spurs’ season in late May, through to Kane’s unauthorised absence from pre-season training at the start of this month (which cost him two weeks’ wages). Levy saw this as a challenge to his authority, which made him even more keen not to get pushed around. Maybe with a more delicate approach, Kane might have succeeded, but Levy was insistent from early on that he would not be giving in.

Clearly, this summer has been handled poorly by the Kane camp, who failed to land the deal between City and Tottenham that they were relying on. But City have not got what they wanted either. All summer, they have needed an experienced replacement for Aguero, and while they have added Jack Grealish, they now have six days of the window left to sign a true striker. They have wasted months chasing a player Levy never had any intention of selling. For City and for Kane, the politics and the money never quite added up.

The roots of this long saga started last summer. City, trying to sharpen up their team to win back the Premier League title Liverpool had just claimed, made an enquiry about Kane, which Levy firmly rejected. But the player was interested in the prospect of a move to the Etihad and sought assurances from Levy that he would be allowed to leave in future.

While Kane believes he was promised he could leave after the 2020-21 season, especially if Tottenham did not get back into the Champions League, an alternative view at the north London club is that Levy merely said he would listen to offers for him. Not that he would be allowed to leave. The precise nature of this so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between Levy and Kane has been one of the key themes of this summer.

There was some frustration with Kane at the start of last season, as he had to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from holiday in the Bahamas in line with COVID-19 protocols at the time. This meant he missed a large portion of a pandemic-curtailed pre-season. When Spurs opened with a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Everton, he looked undercooked, struggling to physically compete. Towards the end of the game, then-manager Jose Mourinho ran out of patience, barking out at the England captain, “Come on, let’s make a fucking effort?”

But it did not take long for Kane to get back up to speed. In Spurs’ next league game a week later, he delivered four assists for Son Heung-min in a 5-2 win at Southampton. And in those first few months of the season, when Tottenham flew to the top of the table, and it briefly felt as if the Mourinho appointment might be a masterstroke, Kane was integral to everything good that Spurs did.

While some team-mates had their doubts about Mourinho, his tactics and his methods, Kane was one of the most loyal players to Mourinho through his 17-month tenure.

He saw Mourinho as a like-minded figure, with a shared commitment to finally winning Tottenham a first trophy since February 2008 as soon as possible, by whatever means necessary. Right up until Mourinho’s sacking in April, he was described as being willing to “run through a wall” for his manager. (The full extent of Kane’s support is underlined by his comments in that Neville interview released a month later, when his analysis of why the Mourinho era did not work out — “Jose expected us to be men… we didn’t have enough leadership” — was exactly what the now Roma coach himself would say.)

The other part of Levy’s insistence on keeping Kane was personal. He felt deeply affronted by the conduct of Kane and his family throughout this process, from the leaking of Kane’s desire to leave and that Neville interview right at the climax of Spurs’ season in late May, through to Kane’s unauthorised absence from pre-season training at the start of this month (which cost him two weeks’ wages). Levy saw this as a challenge to his authority, which made him even more keen not to get pushed around. Maybe with a more delicate approach, Kane might have succeeded, but Levy was insistent from early on that he would not be giving in.

Clearly, this summer has been handled poorly by the Kane camp, who failed to land the deal between City and Tottenham that they were relying on. But City have not got what they wanted either. All summer, they have needed an experienced replacement for Aguero, and while they have added Jack Grealish, they now have six days of the window left to sign a true striker. They have wasted months chasing a player Levy never had any intention of selling. For City and for Kane, the politics and the money never quite added up.

The roots of this long saga started last summer. City, trying to sharpen up their team to win back the Premier League title Liverpool had just claimed, made an enquiry about Kane, which Levy firmly rejected. But the player was interested in the prospect of a move to the Etihad and sought assurances from Levy that he would be allowed to leave in future.

While Kane believes he was promised he could leave after the 2020-21 season, especially if Tottenham did not get back into the Champions League, an alternative view at the north London club is that Levy merely said he would listen to offers for him. Not that he would be allowed to leave. The precise nature of this so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between Levy and Kane has been one of the key themes of this summer.

There was some frustration with Kane at the start of last season, as he had to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from holiday in the Bahamas in line with COVID-19 protocols at the time. This meant he missed a large portion of a pandemic-curtailed pre-season. When Spurs opened with a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Everton, he looked undercooked, struggling to physically compete. Towards the end of the game, then-manager Jose Mourinho ran out of patience, barking out at the England captain, “Come on, let’s make a fucking effort?”

But it did not take long for Kane to get back up to speed. In Spurs’ next league game a week later, he delivered four assists for Son Heung-min in a 5-2 win at Southampton. And in those first few months of the season, when Tottenham flew to the top of the table, and it briefly felt as if the Mourinho appointment might be a masterstroke, Kane was integral to everything good that Spurs did.

While some team-mates had their doubts about Mourinho, his tactics and his methods, Kane was one of the most loyal players to Mourinho through his 17-month tenure.

He saw Mourinho as a like-minded figure, with a shared commitment to finally winning Tottenham a first trophy since February 2008 as soon as possible, by whatever means necessary. Right up until Mourinho’s sacking in April, he was described as being willing to “run through a wall” for his manager. (The full extent of Kane’s support is underlined by his comments in that Neville interview released a month later, when his analysis of why the Mourinho era did not work out — “Jose expected us to be men… we didn’t have enough leadership” — was exactly what the now Roma coach himself would say.)

The other part of Levy’s insistence on keeping Kane was personal. He felt deeply affronted by the conduct of Kane and his family throughout this process, from the leaking of Kane’s desire to leave and that Neville interview right at the climax of Spurs’ season in late May, through to Kane’s unauthorised absence from pre-season training at the start of this month (which cost him two weeks’ wages). Levy saw this as a challenge to his authority, which made him even more keen not to get pushed around. Maybe with a more delicate approach, Kane might have succeeded, but Levy was insistent from early on that he would not be giving in.

Clearly, this summer has been handled poorly by the Kane camp, who failed to land the deal between City and Tottenham that they were relying on. But City have not got what they wanted either. All summer, they have needed an experienced replacement for Aguero, and while they have added Jack Grealish, they now have six days of the window left to sign a true striker. They have wasted months chasing a player Levy never had any intention of selling. For City and for Kane, the politics and the money never quite added up.

The roots of this long saga started last summer. City, trying to sharpen up their team to win back the Premier League title Liverpool had just claimed, made an enquiry about Kane, which Levy firmly rejected. But the player was interested in the prospect of a move to the Etihad and sought assurances from Levy that he would be allowed to leave in future.

While Kane believes he was promised he could leave after the 2020-21 season, especially if Tottenham did not get back into the Champions League, an alternative view at the north London club is that Levy merely said he would listen to offers for him. Not that he would be allowed to leave. The precise nature of this so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between Levy and Kane has been one of the key themes of this summer.

There was some frustration with Kane at the start of last season, as he had to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from holiday in the Bahamas in line with COVID-19 protocols at the time. This meant he missed a large portion of a pandemic-curtailed pre-season. When Spurs opened with a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Everton, he looked undercooked, struggling to physically compete. Towards the end of the game, then-manager Jose Mourinho ran out of patience, barking out at the England captain, “Come on, let’s make a fucking effort?”

But it did not take long for Kane to get back up to speed. In Spurs’ next league game a week later, he delivered four assists for Son Heung-min in a 5-2 win at Southampton. And in those first few months of the season, when Tottenham flew to the top of the table, and it briefly felt as if the Mourinho appointment might be a masterstroke, Kane was integral to everything good that Spurs did.

While some team-mates had their doubts about Mourinho, his tactics and his methods, Kane was one of the most loyal players to Mourinho through his 17-month tenure.

He saw Mourinho as a like-minded figure, with a shared commitment to finally winning Tottenham a first trophy since February 2008 as soon as possible, by whatever means necessary. Right up until Mourinho’s sacking in April, he was described as being willing to “run through a wall” for his manager. (The full extent of Kane’s support is underlined by his comments in that Neville interview released a month later, when his analysis of why the Mourinho era did not work out — “Jose expected us to be men… we didn’t have enough leadership” — was exactly what the now Roma coach himself would say.)

But as Tottenham’s season fell away, to finish not just out of the top four Champions League spots but out of the Europa League too, Kane’s intentions solidified. He wanted 2020-21 to be his final season at the club, ending a 17-year association with Spurs. And he believed that having given it his all last season, he was entitled to a departure on good terms. He wanted it wrapped up before the start of the European Championship in early June. And his England team-mates knew it, as Kane openly discussed life in Manchester with them during the March international break.

At that point, with a few weeks of the season left, it felt as if Manchester City and neighbours United could be equally likely destinations for Kane. He would rather stay in the Premier League than go abroad and was reluctant to go to Spurs’ London rivals Chelsea because he did not want to sabotage his legacy with his boyhood club’s fans. And before United turned their attention to Jadon Sancho, they might well have led the chase.

The view at Tottenham during those latter stages of last season was that the conditions were simply not there for Kane to get his wish of a move. He still had three years left on the six-year deal he signed in June 2018, meaning Levy had no real incentive to let him go this summer. Especially as it was unclear just what the market would be for Kane in this window, and whether any of the interested clubs would offer enough money to tempt him to sell.

A likelier outcome, it was assumed at this point, was that Levy would persuade Kane to give him one more year, and that if Tottenham were unsuccessful again, then he could be sold in the, presumably, more buoyant summer 2022 market instead. But Kane did not want to do one more year just to satisfy Levy. In his mind, by staying for 2020-21, he’d already done that.

The news that Kane wanted out was first broken in The Athletic on April 10, in the final week of Mourinho’s tenure, but it was not until May that his intentions were out in the open.

On May 17, Sky Sports News reported that Kane had asked to leave Tottenham, and three days later an interview with Neville’s The Overlap was released online, in which Kane spoke with remarkable candour about his desire to leave Tottenham.

Kane told Neville he wanted to be involved in the “biggest games” again, which he no longer was, that he planned to have a “good, honest conversation” with Levy about his future, and speculated that the Spurs chairman might even want to sell him this summer for £100 million before his value started to drop as he neared 30. And Kane made a prediction: “Ultimately it’s going to be down to me, and how I feel, and what’s going to be the best for me and my career at this moment in time.”

The cold reality of this summer, however, has shown that Kane did not have as much power as he hoped. Ultimately, it was down to Levy, and how he felt.

As soon as the Neville interview came out, there could be no doubting how much Kane wanted to leave the club. When Spurs played their last home game of the season against Aston Villa — another miserable 2-1 defeat — the day before the interview’s release, Kane walked solemnly around the edge of the pitch at the end, waving goodbye to the fans he thought he would be seeing as “one of their own” for the final time.

In the final game of the season, four days later away to Leicester City, Kane scored in a 4-2 win that secured a third Premier League Golden Boot for him and a seventh-place finish for his club.

If Kane thought the events of that week had made it easier for him to get his move, and that his position had been set out clearly but respectfully, then the Tottenham hierarchy took the opposite view.

When the story broke on Sky Sports, the club took the very unusual step of issuing an on-the-record statement reminding Kane of his professional responsibilities for the week. “Our focus is on finishing the season as strongly as possible,” said a club spokesperson. “That’s what everyone should be focused on.”

Behind the scenes, Levy and the people who run Tottenham were furious, both with Kane’s challenge to their authority and his timing. The feeling was that he had blithely disrupted Spurs’ season at the worst possible moment. At this point, Tottenham were still meant to be fighting for European qualification. There was a sense among the hierarchy that Kane’s behaviour had undermined Ryan Mason, the interim head coach, forcing him to answer endless media questions about the striker’s future — questions that Kane was not facing himself. Kane and Mason were meant to be close friends, after all. (There was no sign of an issue between them during the subsequent Euros, when Mason was a guest of Kane’s for England’s games at Wembley.)

There was also a feeling at Tottenham that Kane’s tactics would do him more harm than good.

Levy has in the past been willing to sell some of their best players for big fees. But he only likes to sell them on his terms (£30.75 million for Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United, £85 million for Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, £53 million for Kyle Walker to Manchester City), and he does not like to be pushed into anything.

So for the Kane camp to try to exert public pressure on him by talking about a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, the terms of which were seriously disputed, was seen as counter-productive in the extreme, and a product of the bad, inexperienced advice the player was getting. Levy was backed into a corner and was in no mood to let Kane get his way.

The first time City reached out to Levy about signing Kane, it did not get very far. They said they would like to discuss Kane’s future with him, but that any discussion would have to involve them sending players to Spurs in part-exchange. Levy asked who, and the five names offered were Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Aymeric Laporte and Riyad Mahrez. Levy was not interested. There was also no indication that these players would have agreed to go to Tottenham.

Kane had wanted his future resolved by the time the Euros started on June 11, but by the end of May it was very clear that would not happen. Levy, remember, did not sanction the sales of Berbatov or Bale until the very end of those transfer windows, or of Walker until minutes before City and Spurs were due to depart on pre-season tours in the United States. In negotiations like this, time is leverage, and Levy had no incentive to strike a quick deal.

Off Kane went to captain his country, still very much a Tottenham player. And when he struggled to get into England’s first few games, not scoring in the tournament until the last-16 game against Germany, he faced questions about whether the transfer saga, still at this point only a few weeks old, was starting to distract him. Kane, one of life’s compartmentalisers, insisted he was “fully focused” on the job of trying to make England champions of Europe.

Meanwhile, at Tottenham, Levy was trying to get the club back on track for the new season, and that meant finally appointing a replacement for Mourinho.

In late May and early June, they were aiming for a top-end hire, such as Antonio Conte or the return of Mourinho’s fan-favourite predecessor Mauricio Pochettino. While club figures did not think that such an appointment would instantly sway Kane to want to stay, there was a feeling doing so might make it easier for Levy to say no to Kane, and tell him to play one more season as Spurs tried to get back on track.

So when Fabio Paratici, Spurs’ new managing director of football, was looking around Italy in mid-June, speaking to managerial candidates, he was making it very clear to people that Kane would be a Tottenham player for the coming season. But as the managerial hunt dragged on far longer than anyone could have expected, people started to wonder what it might mean for Kane. One popular view was that it would push him out, that he would be even more desperate to leave, and that Levy would have no authority to say no after bungling the search for a new head coach so badly.

Yet an alternative view at the club was that the more embarrassing the managerial search was for Tottenham, the more pressure Levy would be under to keep hold of Kane. He could not afford for a difficult summer to become a disastrous one.

When City came in with their first cash bid, in late June, it did not get very far. The £100 million offer, or more precisely £75 million up front and £25 million in various add-ons, was far away from what would have been needed just to give Levy something to think about. It did nothing to move the Spurs chairman from his conviction that Kane would not be sold this summer, and certainly not to another club in the Premier League.

Two years ago Kane might have been a target for Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Juventus, but football’s economic landscape has changed, and those teams cannot afford the biggest stars anymore (This was weeks before Madrid’s massive, already-rejected bid for Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe). So a move within the Premier League was Kane’s only option, and one Levy was determined to block.

With City having made their first two approaches, and Spurs having rebuffed both, the attention switched to Kane himself. What would he do to try to force his way out?

In 2013, when Bale wanted to leave for Real Madrid, he did not show up for pre-season training in order to force the issue, and it worked. At the end of that summer window, Levy agreed an £85 million deal for the Welshman to go to the Bernabeu. But the expectation this summer was that Kane would not try the same tactics. He had always been a good professional at Spurs, always desperate to play every game, and keep scoring goals. As much as he wanted to leave, he would not down tools to try to make it happen.

Kane, it should be remembered, did not want to have to force things either. His hope, at the end of last season, was that this could all be resolved quickly and amicably without his having to resort to any extra machinations. He thought that he would be able to leave with Levy’s blessing. But in a meeting on July 16, five days after England lost the Euros final in a penalty shootout with Italy, Paratici reiterated the club’s position to the Kane camp. And when Kane flew off to the Bahamas, to a resort co-owned by Spurs’ owner Joe Lewis, on his summer holiday, he sensed that something had to change.

Tottenham had told Kane they expected him back to prepare for pre-season training on Monday, August 2 — a three-week break after the final of the Euros. But when that day came, he was still away, having headed from the Bahamas to another resort in Florida before returning home. While Kane believes this was down to a breakdown in communication between himself and the club, and that he had been granted extended leave, the view at Tottenham is that he knew when he was expected back. Kane was fined two weeks’ wages for his late return.

Kane did not return to Hotspur Way until August 7, a Saturday, having issued a statement on social media saying that he was “hurt” by those “questioning his professionalism”, and insisting that he “would never” refuse to train.

With Kane back at Spurs Lodge, the on-site accommodation at the training ground, he was left training by himself until COVID-19 regulations allowed him to rejoin the whole group. On the Monday, August 9, Paratici held a three-hour meeting with him, during which Kane repeatedly reiterated his own desire to leave, and Paratici made clear that the club would not be selling.

On the Thursday afternoon, Kane completed his day-five “test to release” PCR test, the negative result of which cleared him to train with the group next morning. But those Friday and Saturday sessions were not enough to get Kane ready to play in Tottenham’s August 15 season opener against… Manchester City.

Tottenham, with Son up front, put in a brilliant performance that Sunday, winning the game 1-0 and tearing through the Premier League champions on the break. By the end, Spurs fans were singing “Are you watching Harry Kane?”, pointing to the fact that on the evidence of this one particular game, City missed Kane more than Tottenham did.

But if City needed Kane so much, why were they not showing it? No one from the City hierarchy discussed the signing of Kane with Spurs when they were at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that afternoon. Levy’s stonewall tactics, refusing to even negotiate with them or pick up the phone, appeared to have worked.

One view of this period is that City did surprisingly little to indicate their desire to sign Kane. At the moment when Kane’s relationship with Tottenham was most fraught, they did not come in with an improved offer.

City are never usually reluctant to spend big when they especially want a player. They showed that by paying the £100 million release clause to sign Grealish from Aston Villa on August 5. But with Kane, City were slow to come in with a higher offer, to give Levy something to think about. And it has raised the question: Did the rest of the City hierarchy want Kane, who turned 28 last month, as much as their manager Pep Guardiola himself did?

For Guardiola, Kane was hugely attractive, given his Premier League experience, his intelligence to play as a No 9 or a No 10, his instinctive understanding of the game. He could have fitted into City’s play far smoother than the awkward power of Borussia Dortmund’s 21-year-old striker Erling Haaland. On August 6, Guardiola took the unusual step of calling Kane an “exceptional, extraordinary striker” in his pre-Spurs match press conference.

An alternative view is that with Levy having made it crystal clear that he would not be negotiating with City to sell them Kane, there was little to be gained from coming back in with an offer that would not get anywhere. City would have been willing to go up to £100 million up front and £20 million more in add-ons to sign Kane, but they never had the slightest indication that doing so would have been worthwhile.

And while City have just spent £100 million on Grealish, they have traditionally been reluctant to get into bidding wars for established stars, pulling out of interest in Alexis Sanchez, Harry Maguire and Jorginho in recent years when they became too expensive. Maybe signing the two England team-mates this summer for a combined £220 million-plus would have been too much of a departure from their normal policy.

Either way, with Levy even more adamant by the day that Kane would not be sold, and City unable to persuade him otherwise, the situation was at an impasse. And that impasse was just what Levy had been hoping for.

As August dragged on with no big new bid, it became increasingly clear to everyone close to the situation that Levy had won. Even though plenty of junior staff at City believed Kane was on his way to their club, the reality was that it was never truly on the cards.

Kane continued to train and recover his match sharpness. He was not quite ready for the Europa Conference League play-off first leg away to Portugal’s Pacos de Ferreira last Thursday, but by then he too sensed City would not be coming back with a huge amount of money, enough to buy him out of the three years left on his deal.

And when Spurs went to Molineux on Sunday, second-half substitute Kane was roared onto the pitch by the away end.

They all knew then what Kane would make explicit yesterday: that he would remain one of their own for a bit longer.

Said a source who has a friend that cleans Levy's toilet. Fuck me life's too short

[Tokyo Blue]

Code: Select all

Tottenham, with Son up front, put in a brilliant performance that Sunday, winning the game 1-0 and tearing through the Premier League champions on the break.

If you reading this, pitt-brooke, you are talking horseshit. They tore through us so effectively and repeatedly they mustered a whopping three shots on target. Fuck off, you fucking turncoat shithouse.

The things people do for a bit of "fame".

[johnny crossan]

Just scored 2 in their euro conference qualifier - oh well - extra nosebag tonight for the loser with the glass fetlocks

[Beefymcfc]

Code: Select all

Tottenham, with Son up front, put in a brilliant performance that Sunday, winning the game 1-0 and tearing through the Premier League champions on the break.

If you reading this, pitt-brooke, you are talking horseshit. They tore through us so effectively and repeatedly they mustered a whopping three shots on target. Fuck off, you fucking turncoat shithouse.

The things people do for a bit of "fame".

He’s the epitome of that turncoat shithouse you mention and shows how the click-bait generation rules the net.

[PeterParker]

He ended up looking like a chump.
Well, he made his bed.

[nottsblue]

He ended up looking like a chump.
Well, he made his bed.

The very first thing he should do is get himself a proper agent, who knows what he is doing

[nottsblue]

It has now subsequently come to light Levy granted Kanes wish to leave.

He just had to put it in writing and hand in a written transfer request

[PeterParker]

With Tranny going to the rags

[johnny crossan]

Apparently top players like Messi & Tranny "decide where they want to play" according to Pep (with a smirk for Harold's benefit)

[Mase]

Absolute donkey last night. Grealish set him up three times and Kane fucked it up.

[linwood]

Thank fuck we didn't sign him, absolutely woeful. Grealish keeps sticking on a plate and he shits the bed every time.

[johnny crossan]

Thank fuck we didn't sign him, absolutely woeful. Grealish keeps sticking on a plate and he shits the bed every time.

an unnerving malaphor