There’s been talk all summer of whether Harry Kane would see out his contract at Tottenham Hotspur or not and Friday provided an end point to all the noise, a move to Bayern Munich which Stan Collymore believes is the best outcome for everyone.
The England striker had the option of moving to the Bundesliga giants and potentially getting trophies in his cabinet, something that has long eluded him in north London.
That, perhaps, was the overriding factor of why he’s decided to leave the Lilywhites and, potentially, give up ever reaching the Premier League record for goals scored.
As a striker himself, Collymore sees the value in the move from all sides.
“I think it’s a cracking move, a really good move for all parties,” he said in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
“For Tottenham Hotspur PLC – they get £100m or thereabouts for a player that’s in the last year of his contract. For Ange Postecoglou – because he doesn’t have to go through a season answering questions about Harry Kane; Will he stay? Will he go? Is he happy? Is he not happy?
“It’s really a great narrative and a good space for him if he backs his own ability. For Harry Kane himself, a as a player, it’s a great move.”
Now everyone can move on and if Daniel Levy allows Ange Postecoglou to spend the bulk of Kane’s fee, or preferably all of it, it will strengthen the squad, and also hint at what might be expected of a manager who now has some hefty pressure on his shoulders to deliver.
“I think Daniel Levy knows by Kane’s body language that he would quite happily have stayed and not kicked up a fuss, but ultimately I see a chairman’s first responsibility has to be to that football club,” Collymore continued.
“When people say well £100 million gets your a Declan Rice or a Caicedo – not massively proven – but huge amounts of potential, and we get £100m osn the table that can be then invested into a new manager, keep him sweet and he goes and spend it well – and you’re not going to get asked every five minutes about Harry Kane – I think that that makes Ange Postecoglou’s position a lot happier.”
From a supporter perspective, the knowledge that the club no longer have Kane to rely on to get them out of trouble may fill them with dread, but the club have lost big names before and always moved forward.
“I think that with £100m and also his wages off the ledger sheet, Spurs can have a clean break and say; ‘you know what, if we finish eighth this year, that will be better than in April because last year was with Harry Kane,'” Collymore concluded.
“In the same way that Jack Grealish was at Aston Villa all of his life and had as much success as Harry in terms of hitting personal benchmarks, but Villa fans were like ‘oh my god, this is the end of the world. What are we going to do?,’ he goes to Man City Villa for £100m, Villa spend it relatively well ish… the club moves on.
“Tottenham moved on from Jimmy Greaves, they moved on from Glenn Hoddle, it’s time to move on from Harry Kane.”
Blimey a sensible commentary. Well I never.