Tottenham fans face an uncertain future with striker Harry Kane on the brink of leaving the club ahead of the 2023/24 season.
With one season remaining on his Tottenham contract, the potential transfer of the Spurs legend is all the talk ahead of the new campaign with incoming manager Ange Postecoglou confirming talks with Kane over his plans at the club.
A potential exit for Kane is nothing new for the Spurs faithful, with their No.10 infamously blocked from joining Manchester City in 2021, followed by links to Manchester United in the summer of 2022.
However, the mood appears to be different in 2023, with Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich leading the chase for the 29-year-old, as he looks to win major silverware in the coming years.
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Is Harry Kane leaving Tottenham?
At the start of the summer, Kane had four options for 2023/24: stay at Tottenham, or move to Manchester United, Bayern Munich, or Real Madrid.
Bayern Munich have led the race from the off and on August 10 a breakthrough was finally made in negotiations between the two clubs with David Ornstein reporting a fee of €100million (£86.4m, $110m) has been agreed.
The decision was then down to Kane, and it seems the England striker has opted for a move with the striker flying out to Germany on August 11 for a medical.
In early April, Laurie Whitwell and Jack Pitt-Brooke of The Athletic reported Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag was “sold” on a summer move for Kane.
However, according to an April 26 report by Samuel Luckhurst at the Manchester Evening News, United were wary of the “games” Spurs chairman Daniel Levy likes to play, known for dragging out negotiations to pit interested clubs against each other. The same reporter said in May, United are assuming Spurs will not sell Kane.
The Athletic’s transfer expert David Ornstein previously revealed the Bundesliga champions reached out to Spurs with a formal €70m offer, plus add-ons, to try to tempt him to Bavaria.
Reports from Sky Sports Germany claim that bid was rejected, but Bayern have improved their offers since to get closer to Daniel Levy’s demands. The club’s honorary president, Uli Hoeness, has even claimed the player has “clearly signalled” that he would like to join the Bundesliga champions, while Kane’s wife is claimed to have visited Germany to go house-hunting.
Tottenham now look set to begin their Premier League campaign against Brentford on Sunday without their star striker.
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Ange Postecoglou’s plan for Harry Kane
New Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou offered a wry response as his first press conference at the club was dominated by questions over Kane’s future.
The former Celtic head coach did not shy away from the speculation over keeping Kane at Tottenham but the Australian insisted he is confident of retaining him.
“Kane is one of the premier strikers in the world and I want him involved here,” he said.
“I just want to introduce myself to Harry, give him my vision, get an understanding from him over what his vision is and try to be successful.
🗣️ “Question three – it was Harry [Kane] was it?”
Ange Postecoglou says he was running a competition with the other coaches to see how long it would take to be asked about the future of Harry Kane. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/I7U4RCLYBJ
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) July 10, 2023
“My conversation with him will be about how we can make this club successful and there’s no doubt that’s what he wants as well.
“What I know right now is that Harry is part of this squad and looking forward to coming back among players, training and start working together.”
Following Postecoglou’s comments, Kane joined the Tottenham squad in their return to preseason training on July 12, with reports from the Daily Telegraph claiming the club are willing to offer him a new £400,000/$517,000 per week contract to stay at the club.
Day one pt.2 pic.twitter.com/cT10aUG0Fu
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) July 12, 2023
That would’ve put Kane in the bracket of the Premier League’s top earning stars if he committed his future to Spurs and rejected Bayern.
However, he now looks closer than ever to leaving Spurs.
Harry Kane contract extension with Tottenham
Harry Kane signed his last Tottenham contract in June 2018, penning a deal that runs to the summer of 2024. Since then, there’s been little movement on a new agreement for the 29-year-old.
While a move away from Tottenham now looks to be the most likely conclusion to this scenario, at one point a new contract extension could have materialised that saw Kane remain at Spurs for the rest of his career, or at least the rest of his prime.
Back in January, Ornstein of The Athletic reported that Kane was open to signing a new contract at Tottenham, going so far as to say that his “wish would be to win trophies at Tottenham”.
Yet the same report conceded there have not been any “serious discussions” in either direction. The next day, Kane said he was “sure there will be conversations in the coming months” on a new contract, but there has been very little noise since.
Outside of individual awards — Kane has won three Premier League Golden Boots and a FIFA World Cup Golden Boot in 2018 — he has never won a team title despite making the Champions League final (2019) and two Carabao Cup finals (2015, 2021).
MORE: Where does Harry Kane rank among Premier League all-time top scorers?
Harry Kane trophies won
As an individual, Kane has won a host of awards, including three Premier League Golden Boots, with only Thierry Henry winning more than him (four).
However, the space in his trophy cabinet for team silverware remains bare, with no major titles won.
Kane lost out in the 2015 and 2021 EFL Cup finals, to Chelsea and Manchester City respectively, and in the 2019 Champions League final to Liverpool.
It has also been a case of near misses with England, reaching the 2018 World Cup semifinals, and losing to Italy in the Euro 2021 final.
MORE: When is the last time Tottenham won a trophy?
Can Harry Kane break Premier League goals record?
One of the potential motivations for Kane to stay at Spurs — or possibly join another English side — is the chance to break Alan Shearer’s Premier League goal record.
Kane is already Spurs’ leading goal scorer, with 280 goals across all competitions as of July 2023, including 213 Premier League goals.
That tally places him second in Premier League history, only behind Shearer’s haul of 260.
Based on his nine seasons as a Tottenham first-team regular, Kane has averaged 23.3 goals per campaign, and he is currently 47 behind Shearer.
He is likely to need at least two seasons to overtake Shearer. If he leaves now, or on a free transfer in 2024, he is almost certain to remain in second place, unless he opts to join a Premier League rival next summer or in the future.
Premier League 2023/24 TV channels, live streams
| Region | TV | Streaming |
| Australia | — | Optus Sport |
| Canada | — | |
| Hong Kong | — | Now TV |
| India | Star Sports | Disney+, Hotstar, JioTV |
| Malaysia | Astro SuperSport | Astro Go |
| New Zealand | Sky Sport | Sky Sport Now, Sky Go |
| Singapore | StarHub | StarHub TV+ |
| UK | Sky Sports, TNT Sports | NOW TV, Sky Go, Amazon Prime |
| USA | USA Network, Telemundo, Universo |
Fubo, Peacock |
UK: Matches are carried across Sky Sports and TNT Sports streaming and TV platforms, with select matches on Amazon Prime.
USA: Select matches are televised on USA Network (English) and Telemundo or Universo (Spanish), and all three channels can be streamed on Fubo. The rest of the matches are streamed on NBC platform Peacock for subscribers.
Canada: Every Premier League game this season is live streamed exclusively via Fubo in Canada.
Australia: Fans in Australia can stream every match live and on demand on Optus Sport.
India: Star Sports network has the rights to show Premier League matches in India. As well as an English broadcast on Star Sports Select, select matches will be available via regional feeds on Star Sports 3 (in Bengali, English, Kannada, Malayalam), Star Sports 1 (Bangla) and Star Sports 1 (Tamil).