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The Tottenham star has given everything for the club he has supported since childhood. As the end of your contract approaches, you owe him nothing.
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By Rory Smith
Presumably, Daniel Levy opted for a more flattering atmosphere. One day last month, Tottenham Hotspur chairman Levy told academics at Cambridge University Union that he hoped one day a statue of Harry Kane would be erected outside the club’s stadium, perhaps its greatest striker immortalized in bronze.
In reality, Levy was just looking to illustrate the magnitude of Kane’s achievements, the esteem in which he is held, the prestige he gained at the club he supported as a child and carried into adulthood. It was unfortunate that it seemed a bit emotional.
At the end of June, he will officially announce the final 12 months of the six-year contract he signed at Tottenham on the eve of the 2018 World Cup. A few weeks later, he will be 30 years old. If he has to leave Spurs, it’s hard to avoid the impression that it’s now or never.
On the surface, this resolution is easy. Kane is the captain of England. Only Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney have scored more goals than him in the Premier League, and he is already in Rooney’s er, waiting for the pass. Kane is the type of striker who would have seamless compatibility on any team. He can play as a focal point, he can act as a poacher, but by tilt, he is also a midfielder. It is, in essence, a faux new faux.
Therefore, there would be no shortage of groups willing to assume their reasonable salary, according to the criteria of their peers. Bayern Munich have long admired Kane, in particular. Manchester United, as it stands, have more youthful opportunities in mind, but they deserve to be inaccessible and Kane available, it wouldn’t take much thought to recommend that that could change.
Any of his suitors may be offering him not only a generous salary, but also the possibility of achieving the glory that has eluded him so much. Bayern, without a doubt, would be almost a guarantee of trophies and medals galore. Chelsea, like Manchester. United, has recently won several competitions by accident. Tottenham, on the other hand, may be offering him a statue.
This is, of course, reductive. Kane’s departure from the Spurs would not be undeniable. Not only for his sincere and deep bond with the club, but also for more uncompromising professional reasons. Staying at Tottenham, or at least in England, would almost allow Kane to overtake Shearer as the best player in the Premier League. Sensible career goalscorer, an honour that can mean both for him and winning some Bundesliga titles. Moreover, their preference for a trophy could well end with England at next year’s European Championship.
Increasingly, however, it proves to be their only viable option. In 2018, when Kane signed his existing contract, the club filmed a short video to break the news to extremely happy and relieved fans. In it, Kane appeared in the room of Tottenham’s new stadium. It wasn’t open yet. There nobody had played, there he had scored, there he booed his team, there he demanded the resignation of the president.
It’s easy to see it as a new vision of Tottenham’s bright, pristine and flawless future, a position that doesn’t promise anything yet. Kane, having committed the most productive part of his career to the club, his club, only saw the potential. “I’m excited to stay on the train,” he said, perhaps giving a false impression to the video’s subject, “and see where I can go. “
At first, of course, he stayed on track. A year later, Spurs had reached the Champions League final; Kane played at his boyhood club and reached the highest level European football has to offer. Tottenham felt extraordinarily close to the last member of the Premier League’s dominant triumvirate, along with Manchester City and Liverpool.
That’s not what happened.
Over the summer, when Kane signed his new contract, while Pochettino encouraged Levy to “be brave and take risks”, Tottenham did not sign a new single player. In the end, this lack of reinforcements proved revealing. The Spurs’ form has plummeted. Pochettino was sacked, months after leading it in the most important match in the club’s history.
Jose Mourinho replaced him. The results soon took a step forward and then deteriorated again. He said goodbye a few days before a cup final. The club went months without a coach, then appointed Nuno Espirito Santo in desperation, really. It was not a success. He also left.
Antonio Conte intervened, who complained long and loudly about problems so small that it has transpired that his real reproach was the indignity of coaching Spurs. In March, however, he was discouraged from having a job. His former assistant was appointed as the quartermaster’s replacement. The guy tasked with locating his long-term replacement has been kicked out of football. Spurs conceded five goals in 20 minutes at Newcastle.
Meanwhile, the club’s betting team, the one that had propelled Spurs to such an extent that the club was invited to be part of the European Super League, an insult that seemed like a compliment, fell apart. Tottenham’s reputation, its charm to potential signings, has plummeted.
It took years of hard work, at least on Levy’s part, to make the Spurs a significant force in England and Europe. It took about two seasons for everything to go smoothly.
Once again, there will be a new coach this summer. The current favourite, Julian Nagelsmann, is perfectly suited to the club’s wishes: still a nauseating young man, but with abundant experience; eager to rehabilitate his image, so it is unlikely that Tottenham will be lucky to have him; a brilliant and horny football provider; The owner of at least one skateboard.
Levy no doubt hopes Nagelsmann’s appointment will be enough to convince Kane of the club’s seriousness, ambition, appeal. For that, however, the striker would have to forget about everything else that has been noticed in the five years since he signed his contract. contract. All disappointments. All missed opportunities. All obvious strategic mistakes. The Spurs may have the right coach. There is no evidence to suggest that this will provide you with the players or the time or environment in which you want to succeed.
The open-air statue of Kane in the stadium that was inaugurated to constitute the transformation of the club does not mean that he stays at Tottenham in perpetuity. He has already given the club more than enough to advocate for a monument in his honour. He has fulfilled his purpose. of the deal He fulfilled his promise.
The same can be said for Spurs. Kane knows where this exercise is going; Or, more pertinently, it knows where it is not. It will hardly fill you with joy, but you will know, without a doubt, that it is your stop.
The Tottenham players who volunteered to reimburse the enthusiasts who had made the long adventure to Newcastle, only to see their hapless and brainless team fall 5-0 after 21 minutes, for the value of their tickets is a move rooted in the most productive of intentions. He is humble, generous, loving. He speaks incredibly well of them. It is, without a doubt, a lovely thing to do.
Unfortunately, it is also absolutely wrong. Newcastle is far from London, by British standards. Depending on the unit of measurement you prefer, this is 280 miles; 3 hours (at most) and your savings via train; Or two and a half weeks on the congested, pothole, potholed roads of the country through the car.
Add in the ticket value, and those Spurs enthusiasts would have invested a few hundred pounds and many hours of their lives to attend the game. For players to then return what will have to be regarded as one of the most inept performances of any club in the Premier League era will have to be infuriating to the point of being offensive. That some of those enthusiasts have gone public with a refund request is an understandable reflex.
Unfortunately, that’s not how the game is intended to work. A price ticket for a gaming occasion does not guarantee satisfaction. There is a possibility, when you happen to watch your favorite team or athlete play, that you will lose. also little chance of them being humiliated.
That’s the threat you’re taking. The price ticket provides you with a sporting event whose final results and nature are doubtful by definition. Waiting or not is easy a minimum point of functionality or your money, at some point, is losing the point of the total exercise.
Fan, we are told, deserves not to be synonymous with customer. The ingrained loyalty of fans doesn’t deserve to be taken for granted, it deserves not to be monetized, it deserves not to be exploited to generate revenue. But this valuable bond, between the fan and the team, works both ways. You buy a price ticket for a game to help your team no matter what. It is an act of hope, not expectation.
This interpretation has vanished, at least in part, by the attitude of the clubs themselves; No wonder enthusiasts start behaving like consumers when they are treated as such. Customers ask for a refund when their hopes are dashed. In any sport, however, it’s part of the deal.
Arsenal, despite everything, has succumbed to the harsh and bloody economic reality. The Premier League truly deserves to make sure they finish a thank-you note and bouquet of flowers for Mikel Arteta and his players at the end of this season’s campaign. It is only because of its sudden and encouraging rise that English football has even had a semblance of competitiveness over the past 10 months.
The season, however, will end as recent seasons regularly do: Manchester City is crowned champion. Doing anything other than wildly celebrating City’s past fortune, as Array will be met with accusations of bitterness and jealousy, of course, but that has been the flaw of Abu Dhabi’s master plan for the sporting arm of its foreign policy. You can usually win or be loved. Rarely, if ever, do the two spend together.
Elsewhere in Europe, however, things are a little more uplifting. This bulletin makes no secret of the fact that he is desperate to see Napoli win Serie A, perhaps as soon as this weekend, if only to answer, once and for all, the question. whether the people themselves will make the celebrations.
But Luciano Spalletti’s team may not be the continent’s only unforeseen champion. Feyenoord are eight points behind the most sensitive in the Dutch Eredivisie, with only four games remaining. Ajax, in this way, will not qualify for the Champions League. Either Panathinaikos or AEK Athens will win the Greek Super League, dethroning Olympiacos.
And, of course, Bayern Munich were kind enough to explode at the right time to give Borussia Dortmund a chance to end Bayern’s streak of 10 consecutive domestic championships. at home, and none of them faced formidable opponents. His young team will never have a greater chance, if he can stay calm.
One wonders why this happens: the World Cup undoubtedly has something to do with this. Perhaps to some extent this is because the monetary might of the Premier League has had the effect of diminishing the wonder and cleverness of other domestic leagues. In any case, however, it will have to be welcomed, and not only through those who derive advantages directly from it.
An intriguing consultation from Tony Walsh to start this week. “Italy’s qualification for the World Cup is not why the country has 3 groups in the quarterfinals of the Champions League?””Ask, omitting (as I did last week) that it also has two Europa League semi-finalists and a representative still in the illustrious Europa Conference League.
My answer here would probably be blunt. It might even be likely. As with the sudden changes in most cases of the Bundesliga and Eredivisie, there is likely to be a wide variety of points at stake, but it is logical to recommend that the additional means. Season remains for the vast majority of players from Napoli, Inter and A. C. Milan were not an obstacle.
The question of how football can replace him is also growing. Several of you, including Matt Kauffman, would replace the offside rule to be judged only by foot position, which seems moderate to me, while Brent Hewitt prefers to use a player’s “center of mass,” I would recommend that the length of your email might hurt the viability of your idea.
Jim O’Mahony, on the other hand, came up with at least one immortal phrase: “To hell with funny, restless, boring teenagers,” he wrote, a sentiment I think anyone who has met a teenager can understand. “The popularity of this game is growing. There is no desire to change. Stop worrying and spend more time with your dog.
My dog totally with this idea, Jim: I’ve been looking for him to participate in the games for a while explaining that I am his human emotional support, but nobody settles for that.
And thanks to Chloe Zeller, enjoying the last days of summer in Buenos Aires, for addressing a mural of Lionel Messi, dressed in his beloved bisht and embracing the World Cup, in the exclusive neighborhood of Palermo. It is, he notes, registered on Google Maps as a “place of worship. “That is entirely appropriate.
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