Tottenham fans must be fearing the worst after it emerged on Monday night that Harry Kane wants to leave the club this summer.
The prolific striker wants his future resolved before this summer’s European Championships get underway in June.
Sky Sports are reporting that Kane’s preference is to remain in the Premier League, where he has netted 165 goals for his current employers at the time of writing. Only six players in the competition’s history have scored more goals than Spurs’ vice-captain.
Unsurprisingly, Tottenham don’t want to sell their star man. However, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea have already contacted Kane’s representatives expressing a desire to sign the England centre-forward.
"We have a season to finish and we want to finish it as strongly as possible,” a Tottenham spokesperson told Sky Sports after the news broke. “That's all everyone should be focussing on."
Sky’s report adds that Tottenham persuaded Kane to delay plans to leave the club last summer after Jose Mourinho replaced Mauricio Pochettino as head coach.
But the north London outfit, currently managed by interim boss Ryan Mason, have struggled this term and are unlikely to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Kane turns 28 in July and is desperate to win silverware. While he obviously loves Tottenham, it’s clear that he believes joining another team is the only way he’ll lift the trophies he craves.
After the news broke, one fan (@tbendis) created a damning list on Reddit of every player who has won trophies after leaving Spurs since 2008.
Let’s check it out….
Dimitar Berbatov: 2x EPL, 1x Club World Cup, 1x League Cup
Robbie Keane: 3x MLS Cup, 1x MLS Supporter’s Shield
Teemu Tainio: 1x Eredivisie, 2x Finnish League, 1x Finnish Cup
Young-pyo Lee: 2x Saudi Arabian League.
Kevin-Prince Boateng: 1x La Liga, 1x Serie A, 1x German Cup
Hossam Ghaly: 4x Egyptian League, 1x Egyptian Cup, 1x CAF Champions League, 1x CAF Confederation Cup
Adel Taarabt : 1x Portuguese League, 1x Portuguese Super Cup
Tomas Pekhart: 1x Czech League, 2x Polish League, 1x Israeli League, 1x Greek Cup
Didier Zokora: 1x Spanish Cup
Kyle Walker: 3x EPL, 1x FA Cup, 4x League Cup, 2x English Super Cup
Paul-José Mpoku: 1x Belgian Cup
Bongani Khumalo: 4x South African League, 1x South African Cup
Roman Pavlyuchenko: 1x Russian Cup
Vedran Ćorluka: 1x Russian League, 4x Russian Cup, 1x Russian Super Cup
Simon Dawkins: 1x MLS Supporter's Shield
Luka Modrić: 4x UEFA CL, 2x Spanish League, 1x Spanish Cup, 3x Spanish Super Cup, 4x FIFA Club WC, 3x UEFA Super Cup (and the Ballon d'Or!)
Rafael van der Vaart: 1x Danish League
Gareth Bale: 4x UEFA CL, 2x Spanish League, 1x Spanish Cup, 2x Spanish Super Cup, 4x FIFA Club WC, 3x UEFA Super Cup
Jermain Defoe: 1x Scottish League
Clint Dempsey: 1x MLS Cup, 1x MLS Supporter's Shield, 1x US Open Cup
Tomislav Gomelt: 1x Romanian Cup
Paulinho: 1x Spanish League, 1x Spanish Cup, 4x Chinese League, 1x Chinese Cup, 2x Chinese Super Cup, 1x AFC CL
Benjamin Stambouli: 1x French League, 1x French Cup, 1x French League Cup, 2x French Super Cup
Federico Fazio: 1x Europa League
Vincent Janssen: 1x Mexican League
Georges-Kevin N'Koudou: 1x Turkish League
Christian Eriksen: 1x Italian League
Fernando Llorente: 1x Italian Cup
That’s 115 trophies in total between them: 43 league titles, 32 cups, 11 continental trophies and 31 “other” trophies in the last 13 years.
Of course, this doesn’t guarantee that Kane will definitely add his name to his list if/when he leaves the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - but a lot of players have won medals since departing the club.
In all probability, Kane *will* go on to win trophies elsewhere - especially if he seals a move to Man City, the newly-crowned Premier League champions and Champions League finalists.
He wants to spend the peak years of his career winning trophies, and nobody can blame him for feeling that way.
Harry Kane asks to leave Tottenham
(Credit: The Football Terrace)