Welcome to the summer silly season! It’s time to take a spin through the latest churnings in the Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumor mill. Let’s jump right in with the latest on the Harry Kane transfer saga.
The Tottenham talisman is reportedly desperate to leave the north London club, and the disaster that is the managerial search certainly can’t be helping to change his mind. Kane is yet to score at Euro 2020, but he maintains that his form isn’t being adversely affected by his uncertain future.
Manchester City are willing to offer a maximum of £100 million in order to acquire the face of English football, but Spurs chairman Daniel Levy reportedly values the forward at about £150 million.
To make up the gap between these two figures, we could see a cash plus players deal.
It wasn’t until the past 24 hours that we learned the specific names who could be going the other way, and now that we have some real names, all of a sudden this transfer rumor seems a lot more plausible and legitimate.
According to the Manchester City Evening News, City are said to be willing to send Aymeric Laporte, Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus, or Riyad Mahrez in a deal that would breathe some life into what has been a moribund summer transfer window thus far.
This could be the blockbuster transaction that we’re all looking for and eagerly awaiting, but Sterling, the only England player who has scored at the tournament, won’t be a part of it.
According to an ESPN FC report he’s just not open to the idea of being considered in the swap deal.
The 26-year-old has scored both of England’s goals at the Euros thus far, but apparently he’s off the table. According to both ESPN and M.E.N. no official, formal bid for Kane has been submitted as of yet. Levy is not keen to sell Kane, so making this deal actually happen is going to be extremely challenging, to say the least.
In order to change his mind, City will have to offload someone else on that short list, and Laporte might just be the key. All those names listed above bring a lot to the table, but Laporte is one of the more elite centre backs in the entire world.
And that really goes far in the transfer market because top notch central defenders are limited in supply and always in high demand.
You just saw, in 2019/20 what City were/are without Laporte, and the results were a great testament to his impact and value. If I’m Levy, this is the name I’m picking from that short list.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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