England are in the midst of World Cup fever as the team recorded a historic 6-1 win over Panama yesterday.

Captain of the Three Lions, Harry Kane has been in superb form. The Tottenham Hotspur striker has already bagged himself five goals in his country’s opening two games and he leads the competition’s scoring charts, one ahead of Romelu Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo.

His sensational start to the tournament will not have gone unnoticed and rival clubs could be about to test Spurs resolve by placing a bid for the hitman.

Now Tottenham’s supremo Daniel Levy is notoriously a tough negotiator and that would mean that only a few clubs could afford to make any sort of bid that would interest the Premier League side. I can’t see Spurs selling their top asset to any fellow English team and that sees potential bidders probably going down to just three clubs.

Those would be Real Madrid, PSG and Barcelona.

Out of those sides, I’d guess that Real would the the most likely to go after Kane.

Madrid’s President Florentino Perez is a known admirer of the world’s best players, he started the Galacticos generation after all.

Real Madrid are also keen to bring in stars that make their mark at World Cups.

In 2002, Florentino signed Brazilian superstar Ronaldo after he scored the goals that helped secure his nation the World Cup trophy. Then in 2006, World Cup winning captain and Silver Ball winner Fabio Cannavaro signed up for Madrid. In 2014, Colombian attacker James Rodriguez won the golden boot award for scoring the most goals at that summer’s World Cup and that was enough to see Perez sign a £63m cheque to sign the player.

You could definitely see Kane interesting Real and Perez.

They like signing top English talent, David Beckham was a huge coup for them in 2003. They also have a history of picking up star players from Spurs, with both Gareth Bale and Luka Modric switching to the Bernabeu in recent years.

Then there’s the fact that Cristiano is now thirty-three years of age. Now the Portuguese forward is still a phenomenal talent, but it would be bad business if Los Blancos weren’t looking at potential long-term replacements.

Harry would fit the mould in terms of scoring goals. In the last four seasons, the centre forward has banged in a whopping 135 goals in 187 appearances. Last term, he broke forty for the season for the first time and scored seven in seven Champions League outings.

Ronaldo has managed to score more in the same timeframe but interestingly as Kane’s goal tally is increasing Ronaldo’s tally has gone down in three of those four seasons.

The Real Madrid number seven keeps coming out after each season, stating that he could leave Real. He did it again after last month’s Champions League final and many in Spain believe that the club could be willing to call his bluff.

Now even if Ronaldo were to stay, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Kane wouldn’t be a target for Perez. Karim Benzema is also getting on a bit and isn’t a talent that always get plaudits from the home support. Real play with two up-front, that could see new boss Julen Lopetegui playing Kane and Cristiano if he had both men at his disposal.

Bale has came out recently to suggest he’s ready to move on from Real Madrid as he’s not been getting used as much as he’d like:

“I need to be playing week in week out, and that’s not happened this season for one reason or another. I had a five- or six-week injury at the start of the season and I’ve been fit ever since so now I have to sit down in the summer and discuss it with my agent and take it from there.”   

That could see the La Liga giants offering the Welshman back to his former employers in part exchange for the England captain. They could maybe offer a few other make-weights like Mateo Kovacic, Marco Asensio or Lucas Vasquez.

In fairness, having a fantastic World Cup would probably see Spurs more determined to keep hold of their prized asset.

Levy managed to tie Harry Kane down to a new six year contract before he left for Russia this summer. That deal made the prolific striker the club’s highest paid player and means that the North London club are under no pressure to sell.

That new contract also shows the loyalty that Kane has towards Tottenham Hotspur, he’ll be excited to move into the new White Hart Lane stadium later in the year. So I can’t see him in a rush to move away or demanding a transfer anytime soon.

Then there’s the Neymar distraction. The Brazilian will almost certainly also be on Real’s radar and they might view that as an easier deal to get done. He could also prove to be a better forward partner to play alongside Ronaldo.

It will be interesting to see who Real Madrid go for in the upcoming transfer window. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them using the Spanish media to declare their interest in Kane and to try and unsettle the English hitman. They might even make a huge bid for the goal-getter.

I just can’t see Daniel Levy selling the player, not at any price.

Posted on June 25th, 2018 by scott
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