Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is furious with Harry Kane for going public with his desire to leave the club this week.
Kane’s outspoken interview with his former England coach Gary Neville has strengthened Tottenham’s resolve to keep hold of their star striker.
Unsettled Kane claimed his future was up to him, rather than the club he is contracted to for the next three years, and even suggested Levy could decide to accept a bid of £100million for him should one be forthcoming.
Levy is understood to consider Kane’s comments to be disrespectful and is unhappy that the club’s talisman opted to go public just days after news of his transfer wishes was broken by Sky Sports, Neville’s principal employer.
The timing of Thursday’s five-minute trailer of the interview — on Sky pundit Neville’s YouTube channel The Overlap — irritated Levy, coming the day after Tottenham’s final home game of the season against Aston Villa.
Kane had appeared to make an emotional farewell to Tottenham fans after the first match they were permitted to attend since December — a 2-1 defeat which has all but cost them Europa League football next season.
Levy and Kane held talks about the player’s future last month, when the England captain firmly expressed his desire to leave this summer. But the club were hoping such conversations could continue in private.
Spurs’ position remains that Kane is not for sale and it would take a huge offer in excess of £150m to test their resolve, particularly as the most likely bidders are domestic rivals Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Kane risked antagonising Levy further with the release of the full one-hour interview on Friday.
During the inquisition from Neville, as the pair played five holes of golf, family man Kane, 27, stated he was not interested in moving abroad.
He also gave a strong hint that City could be his preferred destination by saying it would be a dream for any striker to play with Kevin De Bruyne.
‘When I watch De Bruyne play he’s a special, special player and some of the balls I see him put in for City are just a striker’s dream, if I’m honest,’ Kane said.
‘He’s outstanding with the ball, off the ball, pressing, but his delivery is as good as I’ve ever seen.’
Kane has scored 165 Premier League goals, 90 behind all-time top scorer Alan Shearer, and wants to stay in the Premier League to try to beat the record. He also has his sights on Wayne Rooney’s England scoring record of 53. Kane has 34.
‘I guess injuries would be the biggest thing (to stop me),’ added Kane. ‘Obviously I’ve had injuries, ankle injuries, but I haven’t had anything that’s kept me out for months and months, touch wood.
‘There’s always the option of maybe moving abroad one day but I don’t think that really interests me in the near future. I feel like I’ve got a good seven or eight years at the top, when you look at Messi, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, all getting better as they reached their early 30s.’
Kane spoke warmly of his time under Mauricio Pochettino but frustration at missing out on trophies.
He also revealed that a lack of leaders in the Spurs squad meant he believed Jose Mourinho’s 18-month reign — which ended six days before the Carabao Cup final last month — was doomed to fail.
Kane added: ‘Jose expected us to be men and act like men on the pitch, have leaders on the pitch. To be honest, that’s probably where it didn’t quite work out with Jose, we didn’t have enough leadership that we needed at the time. Obviously the club was in a difficult stage, with Mauricio getting sacked. It’s never easy, a new manager coming in.
‘I think with Jose I had a great relationship… we got on from minute one. I think we understood each other, we had a similar mentality and how we saw stuff on the pitch, off the pitch and mentality in training, so we kind of built that relationship. Jose’s got so much experience in the biggest of games and that’s what I mean by saying we had a similar mentality in that aspect — in doing anything to win. And that’s the game. Jose just wanted to win.
‘That was the mentality he was trying to put into the players at Spurs: do anything to win and I think we did become more streetwise.
‘But maybe there were relationships that didn’t quite work, but from my point of view, he was great for me.’
Interim boss Ryan Mason said he understands why Kane wants to end his career with ‘no regrets’.
Mason saw his own playing days cut short by injury, and though he claimed to be solely focused on Sunday’s match at Leicester, he admitted: ‘No player wants to end their career with regrets. I don’t think any human being likes having regrets either. It’s normal.’
(Daily Mail)