The ink is barely dry on reports that Bayern Munich have submitted a bid of €70m plus add-ons for Harry Kane and already Kane’s camp has briefed friendly reporters that he wants to leave. A report in the Telegraph co-written by Matt Law, Jason Burt, and Sam Wallace, provides a hint as to Kane’s intentions in this window and suggests that he wants to leave Spurs this summer, but potentially return to the Premier League later on.
The anecdotes are vague (as most of these kinds of stories are) but are very clearly sourced from Harry Kane’s camp, and likely from his agent/brother Charlie. The Telegraph suggests that Kane has already told his England teammates that the “time is right” for him to leave Tottenham this summer, and that Kane believes that injury permitting he can play until the age of 40, raising the possibility of him returning to the Premier League to make a push for Alan Shearer’s record before he retires for good.
Moving to Bayern would not end Kane’s dream of beating Alan Shearer’s Premier League goalscoring record, as he could, in theory, play for two seasons in Germany, before returning to England’s top flight.
Kane believes he can play at the top level until he is 40, injuries permitting, so he would still have plenty of time to pass Shearer’s record if he returned to the Premier League aged 32.
England players were last week left with the impression that Kane believes the time is right to leave Tottenham and try to win club silverware, having broken the national team and Spurs goalscoring records.
— The Telegraph
Not only that, but the article goes on to say that Spurs “may be forced to cash in” if a bid of around £80m from Bayern should materialize.
Say what you want about Matt Law (we certainly have) but we know from the Manchester City transfer saga that he has connections and a relationship with Charlie Kane. This is very clearly a briefing from Kane’s camp and the timing of this release. So we should recognize this report for what it is — pressure from Kane to start negotiating with Bayern Munich on a transfer deal. That doesn’t mean everything’s 100% accurate — Spurs probably will not “be forced to cash in” on anything if Daniel Levy really doesn’t want to — but there’s a lot of signaling going on here and the timing of this report coming out right on the heels of Bayern’s bid dropping suggests that there’s some coordination of messaging going on.
So I think this report gives some real insight into Kane’s mindset here. He wants out, and he wants to go to Bayern so that he can return to England later to formally become the best striker in Premier League history. Kane’s not going to open his mouth this time around — no golf rounds with Gary Neville, he’s learned that lesson already — because he doesn’t have to. He has a lot more leverage now than he did then; his contract expires next summer without him having to do anything.
But he can, through his agent and other intermediaries as well as a willing super-club, put indirect pressure on Tottenham Hotspur to cut a deal so they don’t end up with an angry superstar winding down his contract to leave on a free transfer. And that’s exactly what this article does.
After this, I’m pretty well convinced — Harry Kane wants out of Tottenham Hotspur, and the only two possibilities left are to sell him now, or let him leave for nothing in a year.
