Harry Kane says he is “staying at Tottenham this summer” after accepting he will not be joining Manchester City, with boss Nuno Espirito Santo hailing the news as “fantastic”.
The England captain, who is the club’s second highest all-time scorer, was desperate to sign for the Premier League champions in order to win silverware and Pep Guardiola publicly said that City were interested in signing him.
However, Spurs’ stance was always that the 28-year-old was not for sale and City failed to put in a bid that tempted them to change their mind.
And now, with less than a week of the summer transfer window remaining, Kane has accepted that he will be not leaving.
He says he is “100 per cent focused” on the club and thanked the fans for their reaction to him when he made his first appearance of the season at Wolves on Sunday.
Kane tweeted: “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.
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. 👏⚽— Harry Kane (@HKane) August 25, 2021
“I will be staying at Tottenham this summer and will be 100 per cent focused on helping the team achieve success.”
Kane is halfway through a six-year deal that he signed in 2018 and, without a release clause, the north London club always held the power.
The striker believed he had an agreement with chairman Daniel Levy that he would be sold this summer, but Spurs deny that ever existed and were not prepared to sell their star player.
Kane made it clear he wanted to be sold at the back end of last term in order to win silverware and, in an interview with Gary Neville, strongly hinted at City being the club he wanted to join after naming Kevin De Bruyne as his ideal team-mate.
City made an opening bid that totalled £100million while Kane was on England duty at the European Championships, but that was swiftly rejected by Spurs.
Once the Euros were over, Kane’s camp upped the ante in a bid to force a move through, with a report – coming from a journalist who was a guest at Kane’s brother’s wedding – saying that a £160m deal had been agreed with City. Both clubs refuted that.
Kane consequently did not report for pre-season on August 2 and it later emerged he was still on holiday in the Bahamas.
Upon his late return he was forced to self-isolate at the club’s training ground, meaning he did not have the fitness required to feature in Spurs’ opening two games of the season – a Premier League win over City and a Europa Conference League tie.
He eventually made his return as a substitute against Wolves last Sunday and it has now emerged that he will be staying at the club beyond next Tuesday’s deadline.
Boss Nuno, who has endlessly been asked about Kane’s future since taking the reins, is delighted that the matter has been resolved, having seen it dominate his first two months at the club.
“Great news, fantastic news,” he said at a press conference ahead of Spurs’ Europa Conference League qualifying play-off tie against Pacos de Ferreira.
“I think since Harry joined us (after his holiday) he has been working so this is what we value. His attitude in training has been excellent.
“It’s finished, Harry is going to be with us.
“He is an option for (Thursday). It is great news for everybody. We are all very happy – (he’s) one of the best players in the world. Delighted to have one more option for the season ahead of us.”
Kane’s mention of “this summer” in his tweet inevitably raised questions about future transfer windows, but Nuno insisted he was not concerned about transfer talk resurfacing in January.
“I am not worried at all,” he said. “It’s day by day. He’s an option for (Thursday). It’s the only thing, my only thought. I am not going to say what we speak about. It’s between us.”
With the Kane situation sorted, Nuno must now deal with the future of Tanguy Ndombele.
The club’s record signing is yet to feature this season and is understood to have asked to leave the club.
Asked if that was true, Nuno said: “I am not going to answer that.”
“For this game, he is not on the UEFA list so he is not available for (Thursday). Nothing has changed, no, nothing has changed.”
