United can have Kane... if they pay £200m
Kane reaches career crossroads after angering his chairman, and United hope to exploit the rift
NOBODY in the Premier League is feeling greater financial strain during this pandemic than Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
With Spurs owing £637million on a stadium loan, £83m in transfer fees and other revenues disappearing — like Anthony Joshua’s postponed fight — the last thing Levy needs is for the current season to remain unfinished and the loss of some TV and sponsorship revenue.
It is a sign of his desperation that he has ignored a savage backlash — including protests from Spurs fans — to furlough the club’s 550-strong non-playing staff.
Given Tottenham’s circumstances, it’s no surprise that Levy was fuming at comments from star striker Harry Kane on Instagram Live that the season should not continue beyond the end of June.
‘I don’t see too much benefit in playing into July or August and pushing next season back,’ said the England captain.
In going off-message and speaking his mind, Kane incensed his chairman and Levy took little time to react by letting connections at Manchester United know that the striker is available to buy at the right price. Sources say the figure relayed was £200m, a fee that would surpass Neymar’s world-record £198m move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain.
Even if the price is negotiable, the ball is rolling, particularly given United’s need for a world-class No9. Whether that amount of money changing hands for a player in a post-virus landscape would be acceptable is questionable. Even Levy sounded a note of caution on the future.
‘When I read or hear stories about player transfers this summer like nothing has happened, people need to wake up to the enormity of what is happening around us,‘ he said in last month’s statement.
Spurs fans will hope he was acting in a fit of pique and that Kane will stay and become the club’s all-time leading scorer, an honour held by Jimmy Greaves. But, with United viewing Kane as the striker likely to bring the best out of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Bruno Fernandes, this story will run until the new season, whenever that is.
There is a history of players moving from N17 to Manchester to win major trophies — Teddy Sheringham, Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov.
‘There are similarities,’ said Berbatov last week when talking about Kane.
‘Harry Kane, go and get him,’ ordered former United skipper Roy Keane on television last season.
Rio Ferdinand has been even more forthright. ‘He can’t be sitting there and be totally happy at Spurs,’ he said. ‘If you’ve got aspirations to be successful and you can go out there and court big clubs, you’ve got to be searching for that.’
Even Kane himself, who has been out since January with a hamstring injury but is now close to fitness, is pushing the door ajar having previously been 100 per cent committed to the north London club.
‘I’ll always love Spurs but I’m not someone to stay there for the sake of it. Of course I want to win trophies sooner rather than later. I’m an ambitious player and want to become one of the top, top players,’ he said. ‘It’s not a definite I’m going to stay there forever but it’s not a no either.’
Levy’s initial valuation is more than double the current British transfer record of £89m paid by United for
Paul Pogba in 2016. But the fact
Levy is ready to talk is huge. He is also aware that the sale of Kane is the only way he can give Jose Mourinho proper funds to rebuild.
United are the one club with the resources to carry on investing in the aftermath of coronavirus. The marketing men at Old Trafford would also be happy to have another England captain with global appeal to promote, having benefited from David Beckham and Wayne Rooney in the past. And since Levy’s green light to open discussions on Kane, Odion Ighalo has revealed he has not heard anything about making his loan move permanent.
How very 21st Century if the biggest transfer in British football history develops out of an Instagram Live interview on Sky with Jamie Redknapp.