Already viewed over one million times in two days on YouTube, Harry Kane’s recent interview with Gary Neville has caused quite a stir at Tottenham Hotspur Club.
So was Kane in the wrong to agree to the interview before discussing his current position at the club internally with the Chairman?
In a conventional situation, I would say most definitely. But this is by no means a conventional time at Tottenham.
In Daniel Levy’s defence, who is apparently infuriated by Kane’s candid unsanctioned interview, Kane should have first discussed his future with the Chairman behind closed doors.
Buy Levy over the last 18 months has made a rash of terrible decisions that has single-handedly driven the club into a state of regression, spurring Tottenham’s talisman on, convincing him to make such a public statement of unrest. Kane didn’t say anything disrespectful about Levy or his boyhood club, but his restlessness was plain to see.
Yes, he was honest and transparent, saying things everyone else was thinking. But he didn’t transgress.
Levy’s main bone of contention is that his most prized asset agreed to the interview in the first place. A man of Levy’s stature and hubris doesn’t take well to being left in the dark, especially when it could severely affect the football club he’s in charge of running.
Kane’s interview was also a sign of the times. It’s now commonplace to see players use their enhanced profiles to speak out about their club without first consulting the powers that be.
While Kane should have spoke to the club first before making his comments so public, mainly because of the potentially damaging on-field consequences his desire to leave could cause Tottenham, he’s entitled to voicing his perspective.
On the flip side, Spurs are in the fight of their lives to qualify for Europe and a media storm of this magnitude usually has an untoward effect on a football club.
While he never came out and blatantly admitted he wants a move away from Tottenham, Kane’s desire to leave is now clear. It will be interesting to see how Levy reacts in the long term to Kane’s perceived insubordination.
Kane made a poignant assertion during his relaxed chat with Neville, saying that in a couple of years he won’t be worth what he is now. That’s true. Kane’s market value will never be higher. Expect his value to slowly decrease in the following years.
Kane should garner between £125 – £150 million from the winning suitor. Never again will Spurs be able to demand that price for Kane, who will, in a couple of seasons, enter his 30s. And we all know that age has an inevitable way of decreasing one’s market value.
Will Levy try and scupper any prospective big-money deal for Tottenham’s highly valued asset, or will he come to the realization that it’s probably now best for all parties to, for the right price, make an amicable, yet devastating, split.