at this difficult time.
Harry Kane’s announcement that he staying at Spurs, for now, must have sent shockwaves through Sky Sports, who have been leading the campaign for him to move to City.
It’s funny how over the last few months, through the Covid lockdowns with empty stadiums and then the aborted European Super League, the likes of Sky Sports, Neville and the rest of the media have banged on about football being nothing without fans.
But with Kane’s situation this summer they’ve shown, yet again, they’re quite happy to piss over the fans for a big story, and get players away from Spurs.
So was it the fans that eventually swayed it for Kane, as he has made out in his social media posts, stating the reception he got at the Wolves game? Well, it can’t have been the chants of “Are you watching Harry Kane?” as the team he wanted to join were being beaten in the opening game.
Maybe it was just the fact there was a fan reaction. Chants of any kind. Rather than the partially empty, quite stadium he would be playing in if he had got the move his heart was set on. Yes, they’re in the Champions league but their fans only seem to turn up to boo the CL anthem.
“He’s one of our own”. Well, it’s certainly not something they’d sing at the UAE sponsored ground. And that’s the thing if he joined City. He would never be a club legend. No matter what he won there, even the CL, he wouldn’t be amongst the top rated players at the club. In the Premier League era he wouldn’t be above Aguero, he wouldn’t be above Shaun Goater probably, just ahead of Adebayor about the Balotelli level.
At Spurs, if he does stay past this season he’ll be a club legend. He’ll be mentioned alongside, if not above, Greaves, Hoddle, Perryman, Jennings.
But maybe Kane just figured out that… they’re just not that into him.
They’ve had weeks, weeks since Kane basically set out his love video, with Gary Neville, pleading for City to come and get him. Weeks in which they haven’t really tried. Weeks during which they went out and spunked £100m on an attacking midfielder, a position they are well stocked in and didn’t need another face, other than just having him and stopping others from doing so.
Weeks to come up with the offer that would turn Levy’s head. After all, they, along with PSG, are the richest club in the world, they need a striker and Kane is the best that was “available”. It’s up to them to make that offer but no they lowballed it, Levy’d it you could say. When a Brighton defender is going for £50m a backup keeper for £30m, Lukaku for nearly £100m. The top scorer and top assister in the league last season, with three years left on his current deal, is worth more than Grealish plus some player. Especially when all those players named don’t want to go to Spurs, where Levy wouldn’t pay the wages they’re currently on.
Maybe Kane just looked at strikers under Guardiola and how it’s never really been a smooth ride. From the likes of Eto’o and Ibrahimovic at Barca right up to Aguero. Yes, forget the crocodile tears and platitudes when Aguero left City, it doesn’t hide the fact that Guardiola wanted the Argentine out of the club from the minute he was made manager. You could just see Kane getting City to the CL final and Pep playing one his coaching masterclasses and going false 9.
Be interesting to see what changes Kane makes to his setup. Maybe having a real agent, not his brother. One who wouldn’t have had him sign that six year deal, especially without a release clause. One that could do the deal to get City moving and get “gentlemen’s agreements” in writing.
Be interesting to see how Kane plays this season and what he tries next…