Tottenham talisman Harry Kane will be ‘feeling like s***’ as he attempts to force through a move to Manchester City, believes former Spurs and Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov.
Kane spoke of his desire to leave the club in a shocking interview with Gary Neville on ‘The Overlap’ before the 2020/21 season had even come to an end. And with the new campaign just over a week away, the 28-year-old is still to return to the club, having stopped in Florida on his way back from a holiday in the Bahamas, despite being due to report to training on Monday.
The forward is desperate to seal a big-money move to Manchester City, who are also set to announce the signing of England team-mate Jack Grealish, while new manager Nuno Espirito Santo revealed on Wednesday that he still hasn’t spoken to Kane.
Harry Kane (left) is looking to push through a deal to Man City, who are also set to announce the signing of England team-mate Jack Grealish (right)
Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo has revealed he is yet to speak to his star striker
Kane is due to return to the club this weekend, but he will have to first take a Covid test and undergo a period of isolation – which can be reduced to five days by following the ‘test to release’ procedure – meaning he likely won’t start training until the start of next week at the earliest.
Berbatov, who signed for Tottenham in 2006, knows Kane’s situation all too well, having completed a £30.75m move to United in 2008, with a 20-year-old Fraizer Campbell going the other way on loan, in a deal Sir Alex Ferguson later described more painful than his hip replacement.
The Bulgarian says Kane will be questioning the choices he has made, but the now-retired striker believes he has made the right decisions.
‘Right now, Harry Kane will be feeling like s***,’ Betfair Ambassador Berbatov said. ‘He will feel all this emotion going through his head, “am I doing the right thing, is that the best possible way for us to part ways?”
‘It probably is. He’ll think “I spoke with the club, the chairman, everyone and they don’t listen so I need to do something”.
‘All these questions are going through his head, swimming around and making him at times doubt his decision about what he’s doing. He’ll have his team around him, his agent, family and friends that give him advice.
‘The agent is probably in contact with City and they’re probably swapping ideas on how to do things and then he’s passing it to the player.’
Dimitar Berbatov completed a £30.75m deadline day signing to Manchester United in 2008
Kane has been a revelation for Tottenham since breaking through to the side, particularly under Maurcio Pochettino, now with a total of 221 goals in 336 games, second only to Jimmy Greaves in the club’s all-time top scorer list.
Berbatov believes that will make things harder for Kane, and says the only person who will suffer in this situation is the striker.
‘He’s going to doubt himself through the whole process, especially with the fans because he’s Mr Spurs,’ he said. ‘He’s been the best player for them for so long. To see someone like that go is going to be very painful.
‘The only person who is going to suffer from all this, even if it is for his own good, is the player. It’s sad because you need to go through this kind of battle and it’s not going to be good for the player.’
As stated, Berbatov’s switch to United wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. The striker refused to play for Tottenham in a bid to force through a deal. He was left on the bench for their opening game of the season, and left out the squad entirely for their following two fixtures.
Having been through the situation himself, Berbatov assures there will be plenty going on in the background.
Steven Bergwijn (second right) and Lucas Moura (right) were both on target to help Spurs peg Chelsea back from two goals down in their friendly at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday
But an absent Kane believes he has a ‘gentlemen’s’ agreement with Daniel Levy (right) that will allow him to leave this summer
‘Things are happening in the background that you don’t see all of the time. In this case, I’m 100% sure that things are going on in the background that we don’t see.
‘I have experienced them before, so I pretty much get the picture of what is going on behind closed doors between the clubs and the player and the agent.
‘At the start the player knows what the situation is exactly – which club wants him and what he wants to do – then this is passed to his current club, who may not be able to reach an agreement. This could be because the club have a different price tag in mind or they just don’t want to let you go.’
Kane would not be the first player in recent history to switch Tottenham for Manchester, as Berbatov references, with the likes of Michael Carrick and Kyle Walker proving highly successful upon their respective transfers.
Berbatov says a move will inevitably leave a ‘bad taste’ with the fans, and insists the forward’s training no-show is, in fact, a demand to leave the club, one that shows his relationship with the club is now strained.
He said: ‘If the player wants to leave, they demand to leave – and this act of not showing up at training is his demanding “I want to leave”.
‘If it comes to this situation, then things are not going well and it’s a bad moment and a difficult situation because you’re going to let people down.
‘When you are in the middle and you’re the player you’re going to let people down – the people that want you to stay, the ones that worship you as you’re like a god to them, they’re going to be let down.
‘Some will understand this move and some will not because it happens too often between these teams and it’s always in the direction of Spurs player going to a Manchester club.
‘Because it’s a Manchester teams, players are going to Manchester, me, Michael Carrick and Kyle Walker, and Harry Kane possibly next – it’s a bad taste in your mouth.’
For more from Betfair Ambassador, Dimitar Berbatov head to www.betfair.com/berbatov