The final of an international tournament was being played at Wembley. It offered England a rare chance of glory but the build-up was not ideal. Their captain was at the centre of a transfer saga that involved Tottenham. For 2021, read 1966. Spurs wanted Bobby Moore. He was out of contract at West Ham United and had to sign an emergency one-month deal. Without that, he would have been ineligible for the World Cup he ended up winning.
It is scarcely breaking news that Moore never joined Tottenham. He stayed at West Ham for a further eight years, ended up with a stand named after him, but never won the league title. The parallels with Harry Kane are imperfect but pertinent. Spurs’ unsettled striker may take heart instead from Alan Shearer, who managed to leave Blackburn Rovers after Euro ’96 in a British record transfer. Rovers had declined to finish seventh, just as Spurs did last season. They acceded to his wishes.
There is no such guarantee of a happy ending for Kane as an impasse continues. He surprised many when he did not turn up to training this week; though he is due back shortly, he is still yet to speak to Nuno Espirito Santo and he will miss next week’s opener against Manchester City. A player who has been a byword for professionalism may be a striker, but never felt likely to go on strike. Now he will be fined for a gesture that indicated his dissatisfaction.
In a way, however, it showed his powerlessness. Unlike Moore in 1966, Kane has three years remaining on his contract. A supposed gentleman’s agreement with Daniel Levy carries little legal weight and appears meaningless from the Tottenham chairman’s perspective. A price tag of £150 or £160 million feels excessive in a market of depreciating prices, even without factoring in the reality Kane is now 28. Harry Redknapp drew on his experience of working with Levy to argue the chairman “won’t budge” on his valuation. “You either meet the deal or you don’t get the player,” said the former Tottenham manager.
Levy’s history shows that playing hardball can bring in premium prices. It can also drag out transfers. Kane may have wanted his future resolved before Euro 2020 but that was never likely. Spurs sold Luka Modric on August 27, 2012, Dimitar Berbatov and Gareth Bale on September 1 in 2008 and 2013 respectively. But there are also examples – Modric in 2011, when Chelsea bid for him – of Tottenham simply saying no.
And sometimes Levy’s determination to secure an inflated fee backfires. Tottenham priced Christian Eriksen at £100 million and Danny Rose and Toby Alderweireld at £50 million apiece. Their eventual departures brought in less than £30 million in total. Kane’s age dictates that his value will decrease; keeping him for another 12 months will come at a cost. So would losing him: it is inconceivable Spurs finish in the top four without Kane. They could not do it last year when he got 23 goals and 14 assists. Selling him might doom Nuno’s reign from the start, or finance the building of a new team.
Levy’s stance might be a financial calculation or, indeed, a fiscal miscalculation. Or it may reflect the psychological and reputational damage that losing Kane would cause. Such is his symbolic importance that it would feel a case of rejection in the way that Eriksen and Kyle Walker’s sales did not, let alone Modric and Bale’s departures to Real Madrid. Perhaps it would mark Tottenham’s slide from European top tier to Conference League club. But whereas past windows have given Levy the reputation as the master of brinkmanship, recent years suggest more of his great gambles have failed.
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