Former Spurs player and pundit Paul Robinson has said it will be hard for the club to keep Harry Kane if he asks to leave.
While speaking to Football Insider, the former England ‘keeper compared the situation to when Gareth Bale left, saying that the money that is generated from him would be needed to be spent wisely – something they probably didn’t do when Bale went for £85.3m.
Robinson said: “It is difficult when a player of that magnitude and that quality says that they want to leave a club, it’s just like with Gareth Bale.
“But the deal has to be right. In the past, Daniel has made sure the deals are right and he has got excellent value for players. The deal would have to be right for everybody and it would have to be a very large sum of money that could be reinvested into the squad.
“The squad needs strengthening. To take Harry out of the equation you would need to reinvest the money very sensibly. You only have to look at Gareth Bale.
“There will be an interesting conversation with Spurs next season if they are not challenging on any front midway through.”
If Harry Kane had to leave, where would you want him to go?
Whoever pays the most
Manchester United
Real Madrid
When it comes to comparing the importance of both Bale and Kane, they have to come pretty close, as they are the lynchpin of both of their respective teams.
With Bale going for a then-world record transfer fee, he needs no introduction. The 30-year-old took his time to get going at the club, but when he did, he was unstoppable. From 203 games for the club, he managed to score 56 times, as well as create 58 assists – not bad for a player who failed to register a win with his first 24 games for the club.
Harry Kane didn’t have the same kind of jinx following him when he first broke onto the scene, but similarly, it took him a bit of time to become considered a world class player, having a number of unsuccessful loan spells in the Football League.
When Bale was sold for €100m – still the highest transfer fee Real Madrid have ever paid for a player – the reaction from Spurs in the transfer market was poor, and hopefully they have learned their lesson.
Instead of trying to fill the hole left by Bale, they decided to give their squad an enormous revamp by bringing in a huge number of players. In total, they spent £110m in that window, as per Transfermarkt, and while Erik Lamela and Eriksen were bought for a combined £40m, there were many others that didn’t come to fruition, such as £27m on Roberto Soldado. That season they regressed lots under Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood, and ironically, it took the emergence of Harry Kane to really lift the spirits into the next campaign, as well as the timely arrival of Mauricio Pochettino.
With the club having an obvious lack of options up front, then Kane would need to be replaced with as good of a striker as they can possibly get, rather than trying to cover other positions with the kitty raised. If they don’t, then they could see themselves throwing money against the wall again, as well as be in need of another top player and manager to lift them out of the whole – and it’s unlikely that someone of Kane’s and Pochettino’s calibre will be at hand again.
Selling Kane would be a massive mistake – even at £200m. To even get a remotely comparable player, at least half would need to be spent on the replacement and if the reason is to ease the clubs alleged ‘financial woes’, would the money even be available for players? Kane has suffered injury but he is still much better than what we could hope to replace for similar money or even half the money. Haaland might be interesting but the likes of Dolberg, an up and coming young player, have fallen off the radar. After the serious error of furloughing non-playing staff, Kane is the sort of figurehead we need at the club to bring in money via other means – sponsorship on the shirt sleeves, stadium naming rights etc.