The transfer saga has come to an end.
Harry Kane has accepted that he will not be able to leave Tottenham Hotspur and join Manchester City before the transfer window closes. The England captain has tweeted a message saying that he is concentrating on the season ahead with Spurs. He also thanked the Tottenham fans for their support.
Kane has been linked with a move away from the north London club all summer
It was incredible to see the reception from the Spurs fans on Sunday and to read some of the messages of support I've had in the last few weeks. ?⚽
I will be staying at Tottenham this summer and will be 100% focused on helping the team achieve success. #COYS pic.twitter.com/uTN78tHlk1
— Harry Kane (@HKane) August 25, 2021
Harry Kane accepts he will have to remain with Tottenham.
Kane, 28, has accepted that Spurs will not sell him to Man City this summer. The Premier League champions bid £100m for the striker earlier in the summer, of which £75m was guaranteed and the remainder included as add-ons, but Tottenham rejected that bid.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is said to have had no intention of selling Kane and was not prepared to even consider any offers that were under £150m.
Man City were preparing a final bid for Kane – worth £125m – but with a week to go in the transfer window, and the fee still short of Tottenham’s valuation, Kane seemingly recognises that his dream move won’t happen.
The striker has three years remaining on his contract, meaning he had very little leverage with his current employers.
Kane reportedly felt that he and Spurs chairman Levy made a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ last summer which meant that, if Tottenham were not in a position to match his personal ambitions, the club would allow him to leave. This agreement was, at best, vague and ultimately, from Kane’s point of view, unenforceable. Levy has remained steadfast and has seemingly won the day.
Harry Kane transfer saga shows why agents are important.
This long transfer saga had become quite mundane for the average football supporter, but it has, at least, seemingly highlighted the importance of agents at the elite level of the sport.
Kane, represented by his older brother Charlie, arguably needed a ‘super-agent’ fighting his corner to secure the move. However, even then it would still have been a difficult task, as Kane made a critical error in 2018 when he signed a six-year contract without a buy-out clause included in the deal.
Jack Grealish, meanwhile, signed a new contract with Aston Villa last summer, but his representatives insisted upon a buy-out clause. If Villa were not in the Champions League, and a team competing in the tournament bid £100m for Grealish, the club would sell him. Man City did just that and the deal was relatively straightforward, despite it being a British record fee.
Roy Keane did something similar back in 1993 when he joined Manchester United from Nottingham Forest for a British record fee of £3.75m. Ultimately, as Keane noted recently, Kane shot himself in the foot by signing such a long deal without any clearly defined release clause.
Kane was relying on a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ and had very little leverage. Spurs did not have to sell him and could hold out until Man City or another club matched their valuation of the player. It hasn’t happened so Kane will remain at Tottenham.
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