Harry Kane wants a move to Manchester City this summer, according to Tottenham sources.
The England skipper has told the north London club that he wants a transfer, despite having three years left on his Spurs contract.
And sources in London indicate that Kane has set his sights on joining the Blues, as he feels they offer him the best chance of winning trophies after 12 silver-free years at White Hart Lane.
Kane’s frustration has reached boiling point at the end of another season in which Spurs lost the Carabao Cup final – to City – and look set to miss out on Champions League football after leading the table in December.
City have Kane high on their list, but are also interested in Erling Haaland. The £150million price tag on the 20-year-old Borussia Dortmund sensation makes that move prohibitive, with Pep Guardiola ruling out any move for a new striker at the prices being quoted.
That includes Spurs’ demand for Kane, with chairman Daniel Levy also expected to ask north of £100million to let their iconic striker go.
Pep Guardiola is a known admirer of the Spurs frontman – he upset then-manager Mauricio Pochettino by describing Spurs as “the Harry Kane team” in 2018.
Pochettino took that as an insult to his players, but Guardiola later apologised and said it was intended as a compliment to Kane.
City will lose the club’s all-time leading goalscorer Sergio Aguero this summer, after deciding not to renew his contract, and they have prioritised bringing in a goalscoring striker.
Kane fits the bill, having scored 220 goals in 334 games for Spurs, and his work ethic fits nicely into the City philosophy.
Manchester United and Chelsea are also watching developments closely, but it is believed that Kane has his heart set on joining the Blues – where his 20-year-old England teammate Phil Foden, eight years his junior, has already notched up EIGHT major trophies.
Tottenham are reluctant to sell Kane to another English club and have initially insisted that they will not let him go – but Kane could force the issue.As well as chasing trophies.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, known to be a hard-nosed negotiator, is very reluctant to sell to a Premier League rival, even more so city rivals Chelsea.
Kane has three years left on his £200,000-a-year deal so Spurs are under no pressure to sell, despite Kane’s insistence that he wants out.
Yet the club are irritated with the timing of yesterday’s news, given the team are still pursuing a European place with two league matches to go.
‘Our focus is on finishing the season as strongly as possible. That’s what everyone should be focused on,’ said the club in a brief statement, as report the Evening Standard.
The latter part of the statement is telling, with many fans already picking up the inference that Spurs believe their most important player should only be focusing on the two remaining games, against Aston Villa and Leicester.
Fans return to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the game against Villa on Wednesday, with Kane set to play a part.