Let’s get the juicy quote out of the way first: Ange Postecoglou is “not relaxed” about the whole Harry Kane situation. Why would he be? The question as to whether Kane is a part of this Tottenham Hotspur squad for the start of the 2023-24 Premier League season is a massive one. What manager wouldn’t want to know whether he needs to plan for that?
Postecoglou spoke to the media from Australia as Spurs continue to train before jetting off to Thailand on the second stage of their preseason tour, and admitted that he’d like the whole will-he-or-won’t-he saga to be over as soon as possible.
“Fair to say I am not relaxed about it! It’s not something you go: ‘Ah, well, you know if it does or doesn’t happen!’ I mean it’s a very important part of this football club, not just the team, but the football club.
“He is such a massive figure, and as I have said already, whilst my focus isn’t on it on a daily basis because I’ve got other things I need to do, I know that every time I am talking to you guys, or whenever Harry is going to talk, that’s the first question you are going to get.
“So, you’ve got to deal with it, and I think, for everyone concerned, we don’t want to be doing it for too long. I don’t think that is good for anyone. I don’t think it is good for Harry, I don’t think it is good for the club, because as laser focused as we want to be, you end up sort of repeating yourself along the way.
“But the flip side of that is I don’t want to put a deadline on it, because that adds even more pressure. You want these things to happen for the right reasons. The reality of it is he’s still a contracted player at our football club, so that’s the way I see him.
“It’s not like his contract is ending on the 12th [of August] and he’s got to make a decision, he’s got another year. So from that part, I am not relaxed but I am not putting pressure on him or anyone else at the football club, saying ‘well we need to do this’. But I don’t think deep down any of us want it to go on for too long.”
Postecoglou isn’t going to come out and say that the club needs to sell Harry Kane if he won’t sign a new contract; there’s no better way to kill goodwill with a large section of the fanbase than to advocate for selling the club’s all-time leading scorer and (arguably) the best player in its history to a team in Germany.
But if you read in between the lines here, I think there’s tacit acknowledgement that Big Ange is being put in a pretty crappy position by the club continuing to drag this out. Not that Spurs should accept whatever meager offer Bayern throw out there, but it’s recognition that this is a stupid situation that’s not helping anyone the longer it goes on — not Kane, not Spurs, and definitely not Postecoglou.
A lot of this depends on Bayern, of course. Daniel Levy isn’t going to let the club be taken advantage of, and with Sadio Mane seemingly in negotiations to be sold to Saudi Arabia it does seem like Bayern will have some extra cash on hand. I’m just happy that Postecoglou is, at least on one level, kind of where I am with this — sell Kane or sign Kane, either is fine. It’s the constant flux and state of limbo that’s the most destabilizing thing about this whole saga, especially as Big Ange tries to retool an underperforming team into his own image.
