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Kane can be able Red Devil: Neville

Ex-skipper says Spurs talisman 'perfect' for Solskjaer's team amid transfer speculation

Tottenham striker Harry Kane has sparked talk about his future at the club after saying in an interview last month that he wants to win trophies sooner rather than later. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Tottenham striker Harry Kane has sparked talk about his future at the club after saying in an interview last month that he wants to win trophies sooner rather than later. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

LONDON • The path from Tottenham Hotspur to Old Trafford is well trodden.

Michael Carrick, Teddy Sheringham and Dimitar Berbatov have all made the step up, opting to move to Manchester United despite their fan favourite status at Spurs.

While Spurs have become less of a selling club in recent years after four straight seasons of qualifying for the Champions League, the perception remains that chairman Daniel Levy would be willing to sanction a sale of one of his key players, provided the price is right.

Whether the fans would countenance losing their best player, this time in Harry Kane, to United again is another matter altogether.

Speculation has swirled over the England captain's future after he admitted in an Instagram interview with pundit Jamie Redknapp last month he could leave his boyhood club, expressing a desire to win trophies "sooner rather than later" and would not stay "for the sake of it".

He has scored 181 goals for Spurs in all competitions - averaging 30 goals a season since his breakthrough into the starting line-up in 2014 - but has yet to win a trophy with the north London club.

Spurs have not lifted silverware since their 2008 League Cup triumph and rumours hit fever pitch over the weekend after it was reported that Levy would be open to selling Kane, 26, for a world-record fee of £200 million (S$354 million), £2 million more than the mark set in 2017 when Neymar left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain.

The Daily Mail also said that Kane "will not shut the door" on a possible blockbuster transfer in the summer, especially with the Red Devils known to be long-time admirers.

But given his talismanic status at Spurs, it is a move that will have enormous repercussions.

Even if Kane, under contract with Spurs till 2024, does not publicly angle for the transfer, leaving the only club he has played - aside from several loan spells at lower-tier sides - would wreck the "special relationship" he has with the fans.

It would amount to a betrayal akin to when former Spurs captain Sol Campbell left the club for north London rivals Arsenal on a free transfer in 2001, leading to lifelong jeers of "Judas".

And with the Premier League suspended since March 13 because of the coronavirus pandemic, with no restart date set, pundit Gary Neville believes the current climate, coupled with the financial losses clubs are experiencing as a result of zero match-day revenue, means clubs like United are unlikely to wantonly splash cash in the next transfer window.

While the former United captain called Kane the "perfect" signing for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side, he told Sky Sports on Sunday night: "Maybe, it fits Man United's historical transfers, trying to sign (Alan) Shearer, (Rio) Ferdinand, (Wayne) Rooney - the most famous British players in the Premier League.

'So it does fit with that, in terms of Kane, (but) the Premier League spent £1.4 billion last summer on transfers and the previous three summers, they also spent over £1 billion.

"If you're trying to get 30 per cent pay cuts from existing players, you may have to put a transfer embargo in place. Transfers are things that the fans love and we love players moving around, but it does seem to me to be awry when we've got such a behind-the-scenes war going on with respect to players taking cuts, the clubs needing support, and then in the next breath, you've got a £200 million transfer speculation going on."

Both the BBC and Sky yesterday claimed that Spurs have no intention of selling Kane to United or any other top-flight rival this summer.

The club also yesterday backtracked on a heavily criticised decision to place their non-playing staff on the British government's furlough scheme - which covers 80 per cent of wages up to a maximum of £2,500 a month - and is designed to soften the financial blow of the Covid-19 crisis.

Confirming that only the board will take pay cuts, the club acknowledged protests by the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust had led to the reversal.

Levy added: "It was never our intent, as custodians, to do anything other than to put measures in place to protect jobs while the club sought to continue to operate in a self-sufficient manner during uncertain times.

"We regret any concern caused during an anxious time and hope the work our supporters will see us doing in the coming weeks... will make them proud of their club."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 14, 2020, with the headline Kane can be able Red Devil: Neville. Subscribe