Conte demands ambition, Kane wants trophies... no top four and you can say arrivederci to both, Spurs
I’VE already said here before that I don’t see Antonio Conte sticking around if things don’t go his way at Tottenham.
Which is one of the reasons why this weekend is so massive.
Reasons? Well, the future of Harry Kane is clearly another rather large, grey proboscis mammal in the room.
With Arsenal also playing today – against a West Ham team who will clearly be thinking about their Euro semi-final – it could be a defining day in the race for the top four . . . and defeat for Spurs would be unthinkable.
If they don’t finish in the Champions League spots, I can’t see Kane or Conte having the appetite to trudge around the margins of Europe in a minor competition again next season.
I remember Harry’s face when they lost to Mura.
I barely even remember where they come from (and apologies to the good people of Slovenia, no offence!), but that sort of embarrassment sticks in the memory.
If it is a choice between that sort of game or moving to a club with a better prospect of joining the big boys at the top table, then I reckon neither of them would think twice at this stage of their careers.
OK, it’s not as simple as that.
They are under contract, I get it, and we saw with Kane last year, Daniel Levy can be incredibly bloody-minded in negotiations.
But I reckon the Spurs chairman is regretting that stance now.
What were City offering, £130million?
I remember there was talk of throwing in Bernardo Silva,
and even Aymeric Laporte. Kane is a year older – he’ll be 29 this summer – and has a year less on his contract.
He’s not getting any more expensive – and that’s before you even consider that he was nowhere near his best for the first half of the season.
I can’t – and won’t – blame him for that.
He felt he had an agreement to leave and, if you believe that and it’s denied, then you are bound to be destabilised.
I actually admire the fact that he’s turned around his season so well.
If what I hear is true, he’ll be even more adamant that he has to go this summer...
especially if there is no
Champions League next season. I don’t see how Spurs can keep him, if that’s the case, and not just because of his ambition.
How are they going to finance the rebuild that is clearly required?
Tottenham are miles away from Chelsea, never mind Liverpool or City, and, in terms of young talent and the potential currently at the club, they are possibly behind Arsenal.
It’s between those two now for the last spot.
You have to believe that Manchester United, with all their resources, can’t remain this bad.
Under a young coach with a clearly defined philosophy next season, and with the money they will have
to spend, they surely are a better bet than Spurs going forward.
Perhaps they’d be ready to bid serious money to get the guarantee of Kane’s goals.
Perhaps he’d be persuaded to go there... though I suspect he’d jump at a club with better prospects of winning the biggest trophies,
if he had it. Maybe, if Spurs got that £130m for him this summer, Conte would be happy to stay.
But this is a guy who walked out of Inter Milan because of broken promises and players being sold.
He even kicked off at Chelsea because he felt he wasn’t backed enough, so lord knows what he thinks now.
What we do know is he will walk if he doesn’t get what he wants, and it doesn’t matter how tough a negotiator Levy is, it won’t stop him.
We’ve heard the noises already, of course. I don’t
I don’t see how Spurs can keep Kane. How
will they finance the needed rebuild? know if that’s just bluster, but if they don’t get into the Champions League, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he went at the end of the season.
Neither they nor Arsenal have been consistent, which makes it a hard contest to call.
But the worrying thing for Kane, is that Spurs haven’t created any chances in their last two games. No shots on target against Brentford AND Brighton is woeful – and they were outplayed in both.
That’s nowhere near good enough with so much at stake.
Conte knows that. Kane knows that.
And both will think it has to improve dramatically on and off the pitch – or they will have big decisions to make later this month.