Ange Postecoglou says he could not have convinced Harry Kane to stay at Tottenham and has been planning for his departure all summer.
On Thursday, Spurs and Bayern Munich finally agreed on an £86million fee for the England captain and though reports had claimed that the striker was having cold feet over the move, he is now set to fly to Germany to complete the transfer.
It is a transfer saga that has dragged on all summer and Spurs fans are naturally frustrated that it has only concluded on the eve of the new Premier League season – with a direct replacement for their all-time record goalscorer not lined-up.
However, Postecoglou says he is not fazed and says that he has been expecting the move to happen since he arrived at the club several months ago – revealing that Kane told him in their first meeting that he would move if a fee was agreed.
‘I don’t have a blow by blow account of the whole thing but I understand it has progressed to where it will happen,’ the manager said in his pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of his debut game in charge against Brentford on Sunday.
‘That’s all the information I have at the moment. It looks like we’ll move forward without Harry. We’ve been planning for this, it’s fair to say, for a while.
‘I had a conversation with Harry on day one and we were both up front. I got an indication there that if both clubs agreed he would go.
‘I didn’t see the point in that [trying to convince Kane to stay], whatever I was going to say was going to irrelevant. My feeling was that we’ll get to know each other and that would be the best way to navigate the early relationship.
‘Having said that, in my mind I thought he’d already decided to go after the first conversation. I tried to treat him with the respect his standing deserves.
‘I don’t get frustrated by these things. I’ve been involved in the negotiations side but it’s never a simple process. Harry Kane is one of the greats of this football club and there must have been some torment inside.
“While it would have been great to have it sorted earlier I always thought it was going to be borderline. The one thing I was clear on was going into the first game with stuff undecided. It has happened, hopefully we’ll have confirmation over the next couple of hours.
‘My preference was that it would be sorted before the first game. These things don’t happen in isolation and everyone is clued up. I haven’t received any news from anyone about Harry’s decision changing.
‘It’s best Harry speaks for himself in terms of the decision but he’s one of the greats of this football club and that doesn’t change.
Postecoglou has been backed in the market this summer as Tottenham look to recover from an awful season, bringing in the likes of James Maddison, Micky van de Ven and Guglielmo Vicario.
‘I don’t have feelings either way about needing anything. From my perspective it’s about understanding where were are at. I understand the deal is imminent,’ the manager added.
‘It doesn’t take too much investigative work to realise this was going to happen. A lot of our business so far has been with this in mind. It doesn’t change my plans dramatically.
‘There’s still movement in the squad and it’s a big squad with players we need to move out. There are three or so weeks to go in the window.
‘I don’t need assurances. Nothing has changed from when I started.
‘We’ve had a clear idea about bringing in players to bolster the squad in the right areas. Moving players out is still a big part of what we need to do so we’ll see how that unfolds.’
Not many names have been linked with replacing Kane, with Richarlison now very likely to play at centre-forward at Brentford.
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