Mubarak’s comments shows why Kane would want City over Tottenham

Khaldoon Al Mubarak the chairman of Manchester City made waves on Tuesday as he reiterated City’s commitment to bringing in new talent. That is the kind of commitment Harry Kane wants to see from Daniel Levy and Tottenham. Instead, as Daniel Levy and the Spurs continue to wait to hire a manager, Mubarak and City continue to work to improve their squad. That difference is something that must be difficult for Kane to overlook.

Tottenham resting on Champions League Qualification

It was the summer of 2018, Tottenham had just finished, 3rd, 2nd, and 3rd in the Premier League. While four straight trips to the Champions League was great, the team needed to take the next step. Instead of building on a budding squad that was the famous summer of no investment.

Since that time, the team has gotten older and has slowly declined. Instead of going from 3rd place to 1st, as Manchester City did from 2016/17 to 2017/18; Tottenham dropped from 3rd to 4th. Then in 2018/19, the wheels came off, Mauricio Pochettino was fired and Spurs finished outside the top four.

Then this past season things went from bad to worse as the narrative of the team overtook the actual team and led to the hasty exit of Jose Mourinho. Now Tottenham sits without a coach, devoid of a real plan, hoping to convince Harry Kane to stay.

Manchester invests on top of winning

Juxtaposed to the plight of Tottenham is the muscle of Manchester City. After finish third, 15 points behind Chelsea and 8 points behind Spurs in 2016/17. That summer City spent $349 million (£246 million) on incoming transfers.

One of those incoming transfers was Kyle Walker, which both strengthened City and weakened Tottenham at the same time. Aymeric Laporte, Bernardo Silva, and Ederson were also part of that group, which is a big chunk of the current nucleus.

Then after running away with the title and earning 100 points in 2017/18, City was a bit more conservative, spending just $86.45 million. Most of which were on Riyad Mahrez. However, in the summer after Tottenham finished 23 points back, Spurs spent nothing and City added Riyad Mahrez.

Of course, this same investment continued in the two seasons that followed with City spending more than $350 million on incoming transfers in the last two years.

Mubarak was speaking to Harry Kane

All of this leads us back to Khaldoon Al Mubarak and him saying anything about spending as noted in the Manchester City News, saying that “one of the things that I’ve learned over the years is you need to constantly bring in talent into the team, refresh, and particularly when you are at a high level, at the top.”

Most City fans did not need to hear Mubarak say the team would invest to get better they know it will happen. Pep  Guardiola did not need to hear City is going to invest to get better, he would not be staying if they were not.

The one person who City wanted to hear this was Harry Kane.

On the one hand, we have a team struggling to find a manager, let alone bring in top talent. On the other, you have a sheik who has spent over a billion dollars in the last decade saying, we are not done we are going to spend more.

When you hear words like “it is not the time to sit back and be content” that has to be music to Kane’s ears. While the story is going to carry on most of the summer, likely a decision has been made and Mubarak wants to reassure Kane it is the right one.

While no one wants to lose Harry Kane, you cannot blame the man for wanting to be at a club that takes winning as seriously as he does. Maybe when Tottenham starts taking things seriously, the trophy drought will end. And taking things seriously is more than talk, it is about action and it starts with bringing in a manager and a director of football.