Keep your mails on Kane and anything else coming to theeditor@football365.com…
Harry’s Golden Handcuffs – fire the agent
Hi F365,
I read with interest your article on Harry Kane trapping himself with a set of Golden handcuffs, and I must agree with your opinion.
Yes, Harry signed a 6-Year-Deal (does my hyphenation give me a job at a paper?), and like you said, it was based on promises that are about as reliable as a men’s room toilet soap dispenser. Yes he probably believed that Poch would stay, and the team would get huge investment. But the thing is, Harry Kane is not a businessman.
Maybe, deep down, Harry believed this. But he’s not a businessman, he’s a footballer. In an industry where we hear stories from former pro’s, e.g. Joe Cole calling his agent to set up an email address, they cannot be expected to understand the nuance of business. They are athletes, and rightly focus all of their energy on being the best they can be. This is why they give at least 10% of their earnings to their agents and managers. Simples.
However, having read your article, it becomes clear that his team became blinded by the lights. As somebody who works in software sales, we often agree to long term contracts. However, these contracts have release clauses based on things like performance, return on investment etc.
All of this kerfuffle could have been avoided by a simple clause in his contract; if Tottenham do not qualify for the Champions League in two successive seasons (a big indicator of performance), then Harry can leave for a nominal sum, let’s say £80 million.
If Kane does not get his move this year, and as a Liverpool fan, I hope he does, because I want to see the best players succeed, then he has nobody to blame but his management team.
Another example of the money men not caring about the athlete, or personal success, just merely focused on the bottom line.
I actually feel sorry for the player, even though if he gets his wish, it might adversely affect Liverpool’s chances next year.
Time to fire the management team. Knowing Levy, they have ruined his future chances.
All the best,
Dan, Dublin
Harry’s choice
So having read your article on how Kane has managed to trap himself at Spurs I thought it would be interesting to hypothesize a potential solution.
Harry Kane turns 28 before the start of next season. He signed a 6 year contract 3 years ago paying him a reported £10.5m a year. If I am understanding the rules concerning when players can buy themselves out of their contracts – Players under 28 can do so after 3 years of the contract and players over 28 can do so after 2 years – if Harry is so desperate to get out of Spurs and Daniel Levy insists on asking way in excess of £100m as a fee. I cannot understand why he (or any other player faced with the same situation)doesn’t just buy out their remaining contract term leaving them free to join whomever they please? In Harry’s case, even if he had some ridiculous escalators in his contract that push his earnings up towards the end of the term, I can’t see it costing more than £50m to do so. Yes £50m is a LOT of money to find, but any club looking to pick up a player of Harry’s calibre wouldn’t likely think twice about stumping up that value as a transfer fee, maybe the prospective new club could offer up that value as a signing bonus so Harry won’t be out of pocket for doing so. How come this hasn’t happened with any other player yet when faced with ridiculous valuations placed on them by their club? Surely, the only price that anybody should pay for a player should be limited to the value that remains on their contract? I’m rambling but please feel free to discuss….
Andy West CTID
I was thinking about the Harry Kane situation, and disagree with the viewpoint by F365, which seems to be that Kane has no power in this situation. It’s not that I disagree on the facts of the contract, or that Levy is as stone-like as they come, I just think with Kane it is different.
For starters, Spurs need a rebuild; they have the new stadium to pay for, Covid had its effects, and they are regressing. Directly replacing Kane’s goals would be extremely tough, but if you improved right back, centre back and even a less prolific but good forward, then it could still have them at minimum where they are now. Basically, for 150m, you could get 3-4 players that would improve the side as a whole, rather than continuing with the top-heavy approach taken now, and taking the cheapest possible options elsewhere.
Secondly, for me personally (it could be as a United fan and how Fergie dealt with things), that I don’t think it’s ever a good look for a club holding a player who doesn’t want to be there. It makes the club look weak, rather than saying “if you aren’t here 100%, you will be replaced”. If Levy refuses the sale, and Kane plays badly or is benched, it will keep Spurs being talked about next year for all the wrong reasons. Every story and match will carry his shadow, bigger than the Ozil shadow at Arsenal that went on for years. Levy doesn’t have good PR as it is, and that kind of constant negativity for a year won’t help it. Spurs just had a Mourinho side-show for pretty much the season, do they want a Harry Kane one?
Then you have the England Effect. If it effects England this summer, or for the World Cup next year if Kane isn’t playing at his best next season (or playing at all), will Levy and Spurs want to have any part in that. I don’t mean to say that Kane will purposefully sabotage, just that an unhappy player doesn’t produce as well as a happy one.
There’s also the argument of how much he’d want to stand in the way of a player as good as Kane. Kane has given a lot to Spurs, granted that he has been well paid for it, but he’s on the same standing as Lewandowski and Lewandowski is flush with personal and team trophies. Benzema, Suarez, Haaland, Lukaku, Ronaldo, Mbappe and Lewandowski are on the same level; all are either winning leagues, challenging consistently, or in Haaland’s case, is young enough to get away with not doing so just yet. Ronaldo isn’t this year, but it’s the only year really and he has enough in the bank (not to mention he might move too). For me personally, I never begrudge players who wish to leave; they have a short career, and as much as players get loved by fans, that love is only there when they’re good. Scholes was loyal to United, but he was loved because he was an exceptional footballer, same with Gerrard. For Gerrard, his loyalty was helped by just missing the Premier League. He played two Champions League finals, winning one. He also won an additional 8 trophies. Would Gerrard’s decision have been different if he missed the Champions League and was in his peak years during the Hodgson/ Dalglish era? Would Rooney have moved from Everton (his boyhood club) if it wasn’t so obvious that they would never challenge for major trophies? Obviously, there’s no way of knowing. But basically, I think it would be something that would be remembered for years if Spurs kept Kane against his will and stopped one of England’s best strikers fulfil his ambitions.
The fact he doesn’t want to play in a new ‘project’, and carry the burden of a club on his back should be no surprise. He must know more than anyone, that for as good as his goalscoring record is, if he was just asked to be a striker (like Lewandowski at Bayern), to be the number 9 who only has to worry about goals, and not being a number 10 and 8, his goals tally would be a lot higher.
James, (thanks to Aaron for the reply the other day), Galway
As Mediawatch pointed out this morning, Harry Kane couldn’t have picked a worse time than to tell Daniel Levy that he wants to leave. He’s signed a 6 year contract, he’s on massive wages, he’s the absolute crucial talisman of the team, he’s England captain, and Spurs can pretty much name their price.
However in my opinion this is also a very canny move by Kane and his team; by asking Spurs for a move when he’s at his most valuable to them, he’s also letting them know that this is their only opportunity to get that full asking price for him. Next year he’s worth less, the year after less again, and the year after that he leaves for free.
Now I’ve never been a professional football agent, and nor do I know any elite Premier League footballers, but I must say, if I was Kane’s agent I would demand a move just weeks before he starts to depreciate.
Dale May, Swindon Wengerite
Kane wants to win the biggest trophies…why Man Utd?
Simon(Manchester) is really going all out ahead of time to point out that United didn’t really want Kane, before he invariably rejects them for City. He won’t be good for us because we don’t need him, and frankly we didn’t want him anyway.
All the reasons you suggest that United would be a good fit for Kane are the same reasons Spurs are a good fit for him; undroppable, breaking Shearer’s record, being considered one of the best – at least he has the hometown advantage at Spurs.
You carefully avoid mentioning anything about trophies, the one reason Kane feels he needs to leave Spurs. If you’re choosing anyone to win trophies, you’re choosing City, plus even with the infamous “rotation” that will mean he won’t be a City legend, Kane will score buckets in that team during his 5 minute cameos, and win leagues, Champions Leagues and Golden Boots to… eh, boot.
Neill,Ireland
I was amused by Simon’s message in the mailbox this morning saying United would be good for Kane. From the reports Kane has said he wants to compete for the biggest trophies, so that would be the Champions League and the Premier League. Neither of which United have competed for since Ferguson left and both of which they look unlikely to anytime soon.
BW
He spoke again?!
So Harry Kane has “reiterated his desire to leave”. Simon (Manchester), can you show us his first quote? There were obviously no quotes yesterday so….
Matt Carr, Wilmington, NC, Spurs
Kane to Arsenal
Hi,
As done by an important player during his transfer to a rival : Can the little boy inside Kane choose Arsenal?
Regards,
Arun (AFC Fan)
Ta-ra Gini
Morning all,
After reading the mail from Ferg, Cork on Gini Wijnaldum I felt I had to say something. First I had to point out it’s plainly incorrect on two counts. All 9 other players don’t sprint towards Allison. I don’t think Andy Robertson is anywhere to be seen in the celebrations. This isn’t a dig at Robbo at all. He was most likely on the half way line guarding against a swift counter-attack. I’m happy to be corrected here but as you can imagine I’ve watched it over and over again several times now. It’s also incorrect because Wijnaldum does join the goal celebrations. Admittedly at the end, a bit half-heartedly and on the periphery. Still he is there. Grinning from ear to ear I might add.
I also wanted to say Wijnaldum has been a terrific player for Liverpool. He really has. When he arrived back in 2016 I think most of us thought he was going to be nothing more than a squad player. What could we expect given the club we signed him from had just been relegated? We needed someone to break up the play, or to come on to help see out a slender lead. Basically a replacement for Lucas. Very quickly he established himself as a regular in the first team and became one of the players most used by Klopp in his time at Liverpool. If he does leave then I for one will wish him well, and say thanks for the all the effort and the memories.
Why do some fans reserve the right to hold a grudge when some players have the audacity to leave? To be fair I get it and must admit I used to be the same. I took a lot of satisfaction when Michael Owen and Fernando Torres moves to Madrid and Chelsea respectively didn’t work out. Even Gerrard got the effigy treatment when he almost made the move to Chelsea the first time around. Eventually, when it became clear that Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Emre Can wanted to move on, I wished each of them good luck and thanks for the wonderful memories.
The whole “if someone left in a normal work environment” argument has been done to death in the mailbox, so I’m not going to re-litigate it now. I only want to add that when playing for his country, from what I understand, Wijnaldum has much more licence to get forward, to get involved in the attacking play and get on the end of goal scoring opportunities. If Ronald Koeman has indicated he’ll have a similar role at Barcelona can you really blame him for being tempted? A new challenge, playing with a bit more freedom, a manager who knows you and trusts you, all for one of the biggest clubs in the world, which happens to have a unique place in the psyche of Dutch football. And yes, more money. Honestly, from his point of view, what’s not to like?
Sure it would be nice if we could recoup some of his transfer fee. But let’s face it, the c.£25 million we paid for him, from the relegated Newcastle, was an absolute bargain. Besides Liverpool have been shown to have sharp elbows in the transfer market. We are quite happy to do someone else over if it works for us. The Ox’s transfer from Arsenal certainly springs to mind here. Not to mention our leading role in the European Super League. If anything that should give any player who wants to leave one of the snakey six on a free a free pass.
We all understand that football fans are tribal. Perhaps now more so than ever, what with social media; twitter and fan channels etc. While I don’t think anyone wants to see the rivalries or the edges taken out of the game, I do wonder if, after the last year we’ve all had, it would be more appropriate if they could be softened just a little bit. For example it would be a nice touch if one day, Raheem Sterling received a small, grudging smattering of applause at Anfield for what he did for us in the 2013-14 season. After the inevitable boos of course. The way the game is going I don’t hold out much hope. Lovely Leicester City fans booing Ben Chilwell in the FA cup final for instance. That came as a bit of a surprise to me. Maybe I’m going soft in my old age.
It may well be the same for Wijnaldum this Sunday, on what is almost certainly going to be his last game for the club. Needless to say I really hope that’s not the case. Either way I’ll be giving him an ovation in my living room and saying best of luck and thanks. Thanks for the goal against Middlesborough on the final day of the 2015-16 season, to help secure Champions League football. Thanks for those two goals against Barca, on one of the most memorable comebacks in our history. Thanks for completely upping your game in 2018-19, after Fabinho was signed to play in your position. Thanks for helping us to win No.19 and No.6. I’m sure I’ve forgotten many other good moments, so most of all, thanks for being a much better player than I first gave you credit for. It’s always nice when that happens.
Alex, LFC (I’ve watched Allison’s goal over a hundred times now and still worry Nat Phillips is going to get in his way)
Smart signings…
Just following on from JB and MM, the fundamental reason Pogba is played on the left wing is because Lindelöf is slow. His lack of pace (and Maguires, but he aint going anywhere) means the defence is 5-10 yards closer to goal than would be ideal so they aren’t caught out by balls over the top. This creates an issue in midfield as there is now a larger space between the defensive line and the attacking line. Ole plays a 3 man midfield however because there is more space for the opposition to pass through this area he needs 2 midfielders whose primary concern is ball winning and defensive screening. Hence we have the McFred duet with Bruno doing the creating. Pogba is too good to leave out so he is placed as close to his ideal position (left side of a midfield 3) as possible.
A better CB next to Maguire means the midfield space is compacted and thus needs less marshalling meaning 1 midfielder who does ball winning and defensive screening next to Pogba with split duties of defence and attack, again with Bruno as the main creator. Ideally a better CB and a true defensive midfielder would mean the DM could cover nearly all midfield defensive duties and allow Bruno and Pogba to play as parallel attacking mids. This last scenario would be the ideal formation for this squad (with the two additions) and would make the biggest impact in terms of the teams effectiveness on the pitch.
If you see people on twitter taking the piss out of United fans saying they’d rather have Rice over Kane, and Varane over Sancho, this is why, they are the smart signing if a little boring
DG (Dave, Manchester)
Thoughts on Roy Hodgson leaving Palace
I’m sad to see Roy go. He’s a good manager who’s often achieved a lot with a series of bad hands. Before you kick off Liverpool fans, please remember that the first player the club signed for him was Milan Jovanovic while Javier Mascherano was sent to Barcelona – frankly I doubt even Klopp could have got a tune out of that dire squad.
Oliver, London
Why Leicester fans hate Chilwell…
Dion asks why Leicester fans dislike Chilwell. Allow me to offer my take.
In our collapse last year Chilwell was probably one of the players who was most guilty of a huge downturn in form. To be honest I think a lot of us got to the point where we didn’t really feel we’d miss him because his performances were so inconsistent, the talent was there but the application seemed to be missing.
Past few weeks he’s come out openly and told socceram he was chatting to his Leicester team mates saying how great it would be if he went to Chelsea and played with Thiago Silva. This was during our barren run of form that saw us slip out of the top four. To me this is pretty disrespectful to the club he was playing for at the time, as well as his team mates at the time. Classless behaviour, also the kind of thing that will trigger fans.
You’ve mentioned the comments before the game but I think underplayed them, it wasn’t just a case of him wanting to win, it came across like he wanted to get one over on his old team. Fair enough really, but it’s not going to endear him to his old fans.
Not saying I’m a fan of the boos personally, but given the above it’s hardly a surprise he’s created some ill-feeling from his old supporters, is it?
You’ve also got to keep in mind the bias in something like this – you hear the boos, you don’t hear the people not booing. You don’t hear the masses of fans at home, which in my experience tend to be the ones a little more likely to be objective about such things.
I’d probably go one further and say a large proportion of match going fans are idiots, and ours are no exception. If you want to look at a case of something being wrongly booed on Saturday I’d point to the boos during players taking the knee. Shameful.
I do agree with your sentiment a little in general. For my part, I wish Chilwell… well, and won’t be joining with the boos (revenge was served sufficiently by VAR), but I’m struggling to feel much sympathy for him given the lack of respect he’s shown for the club he used to play for.
I feel more aggrieved at the boos Mahrez gets from some of our fans really. He was pivotal in our success, and was one of our best players over a number of years. Chilwell was a decent but frustrating player who wasn’t a part of our league or FA cup wins. Granted, Mahrez left in much more acrimonious circumstances, but he stuck around for a season longer than he needed to, and I could hardly begrudge him wanting to go on to bigger and better things at that point – saddens me that some other Leicester fans didn’t feel that.
Anon, LCFC
There’s only one contender for Manager of the Year
Brendan Rodgers’ top striker is slowing down, his only two creative forwards as well as his first choice centre back partnership have all been banjaxed for large parts of the season. Ricardo, arguably his best overall player last season, was missing for most of this one.
If Leicester qualify for the UCL, how can manager of the year be anyone but Rodgers? He has improved individual players. He has successfully embedded young players in his first team. He has successfully adapted formation and tactics to deal with unexpected problems. He was won an actual trophy. Fair play to Pep but his freedom to call on a bottomless pit of money accumulated off the labour of literal slaves when he needs to improve squad deficincies is not an insignificant factor in his success.
Pep and Klopp have shown that the real key to on field success is the recruitment of an elite level manager. I’m not saying Rodgers is at that level, yet, but he’s a lot closer than Solskjaer is. I’d take him at United.
Also, the Gerrard fan-boys have been weirdly quiet since Rule Britannia FC’s fans spent the weekend celebrating their league title on the streets of Glasgow. Anyone know why? Was it the drunken rioting and all the songs about hating Irish Catholics maybe? Hard to tell. Maybe they’re waiting for the club to release an official statement saying their fans were provoked, just like when they blamed the BBC and Nicola Sturgeon for the fans rioting on the pitch at Hampden a couple of years ago. Lovely club.
Eamonn, Dublin
A case for Ligue 1
Hi,
While I appreciate that in the last decade the mailbox has been increasingly PL (specifically LFC and MUFC) centric I want to give a plug for French football this weekend.
Going into the final round of fixtures, Lille and PSG are separated by one point at the top. Lille will play mid-table Angers while PSG take on a Brest team who could still drop into the relegation playoff place (3rd bottom). All Lille need to do is equal the PSG result to take the title. Monaco are also theoretically in with a shout but they need to beat Lens with the other two losing while also getting a 6 goal swing to erase the GD.
This, however, is way less interesting than the situation at the bottom. While Dijon and Nimes have already been relegated, we have a six way fight to avoid the relegation playoff between Nantes, Lorient, Brest, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Reims. While Nantes occupy 18th at the moment they are playing a Montpellier side who are probably going to be on the beach. As I mentioned, Brest have to deal with PSG while Lorient take on Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Reims (a couple of fallen giants) are also going to be facing off.
If you’re anything like me in the sense that you would rather watch dramatic finales than the Harlem Globetrotter football which the ESl was going to offer, Sunday could be a tasty day.
NorthernSoul (NUFC)
Response to Christian (Allison’s was more beautiful, though), Copenhagen…
You bastard! I remember that goal all too well. Thank you very much for the re-opening of old wounds. As an old Aarhus lad and AGF supporter seeing Mogens Krogh head in, not the corner, but the bloody cross because our defence couldn’t get rid, well it was heartbreaking.
My brother and I were at the match and were headed towards the main exit in the ramshackle old ground, just around the time Brøndby were awarded the fateful corner. Back in those days you didn’t necessarily need to leave the ground via the same gate as you had entered. So if you timed it right you could easily avoid most of the crowds by walking across the stands and terraces all whilst still watching the match. As Allan Nielsen prepared to take the corner I thought “we’ll deal with this, no problem”. Brøndby had thrown the kitchen sink at us and reduced the deficit but surely lady luck would favour us and the 1995/1996 Danish Championship was in the bag for AGF. Goalies never score, do they. But score he did, the jammy git.
We’ve never gotten that close since. So yeah, nice one, cheers for the memories.
Martin (AGF/Chelsea. Formerly of Aarhus, now in Zurich. The football is shit here as well)
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