Lure of Madrid may be best solution to great Kane conundrum in new era

TOP of new Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou’s in-tray this month will be talks with Harry Kane, a summer target for Real Madrid.

- Dan Kilpatrick

Spurs maintain that Kane will not be sold to a Premier League rival under any circumstances, but a serious offer from Madrid would be altogether harder to dismiss out of hand, given the England captain has entered the final year of his contract.

The case for keeping Kane is simple: he is Spurs’s best player by a country mile and his sentimental value to the club can hardly be overstated.

There is simply no combination of replacements Spurs could realistically sign, even with an £80-100million windfall, that would fill the Kane-shaped hole in the squad, particularly considering their mixed record in the market.

Losing their greatest-ever modern player would rip the beating heart out of the club and immediately rob the team of its focal point and dressing-room leader, not to mention 30 League goals last season — more than 40 per cent of their total.

Spurs without Kane would have next to no chance of returning to the Champions League next season and would genuinely be in danger of slipping into the bottom half.

With him, they still have a shot of a top-four finish (they were in or around fourth place for much of last season, without playing at all well), which would entirely justify the financial risk of Kane walking away for nothing in summer 2024.