Harry Kane’s contract at Tottenham Hotspur expires at the end of next season. So far this has led to several clubs expressing their interest, trying to get the England striker on a cheaper deal. The club showing the most intent is Bayern Munich, who are still looking to replace Robert Lewandowski a year after he left for Barcelona.
With the Kane contract situation showing no sign of being resolved, will Spurs let him go this summer?
It is very easy to understand why Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is reluctant to let the 29-year-old go, even with only a year left on his current deal. The England skipper started all 38 Premier League games last season and scored an invaluable 30 goals, even while his team endured a miserable campaign overall.
His achievement might have been overshadowed by Erling Haaland’s incredible debut year, but it was the second time that England’s all-time top scorer had scored 30 league goals in a season. In the nine years Kane has been a starter for Spurs, the lowest he has scored in a league season is 17, but this was alongside a healthy number of assists.
He is also chasing Alan Shearer’s all-time Premier League goal record of 260, with Kane currently on 213 goals from 320 games. After 435 appearances in all competitions over the last decade, he has scored 280 goals, putting him at the top of Spurs’ all-time top goal-scorers list.
There’s little doubt that Kane has secured his place as a Tottenham Hotspur legend and one of their greatest players, which could make it a tough decision to leave a club he has been at since 2004.
The main factor pulling Kane away from Spurs is that he has won zero trophies with them so far, having played in and lost three finals (two League Cup and one Champions League) without scoring in any of them.
Given their struggles last season, it seems clear that if trophies are to be won during his career, the best option will be to leave Spurs.
Any club in Europe would want a striker like Kane, but the main interest so far has come from Bayern Munich, who won their 11th consecutive Bundesliga at the end of last season. They also have a strong pedigree in European competition, winning two Champions Leagues in the last decade.
A striker is what they are is missing after Lewandowski’s departure, particularly after a season where they may have ended up on top domestically but only at the last minute, while they were comfortably knocked out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage by Manchester City.
Kane has a tremendous goal-scoring record in the Champions League with 21 goals in only 32 appearances in the competition, so could certainly help Bayern get further in this year’s competition.
If the move doesn’t happen this summer, it could still happen this time next year, as Kane would be able to move for free at the end of his contract.
However, Bayern are showing no sign of wanting to wait, pushing for the signing to be done as soon as possible, with two bids already. However, Daniel Levy is a stubborn and daunting opponent so it could still be difficult for Kane to leave this summer, even though Spurs would also seem to be in a race against time to capture any transfer fee for him.
