Tottenham striker Harry Kane has failed to report for training this morning after returning from his summer break.
The England captain, who is wanted Manchester City, was due back at the club’s training ground for Covid tests and pre-season training on Monday following a short holiday.
But Kane has made it clear he wants to leave Spurs to join Pep Guardiola’s champions and has attmpeted to put pressure on chairman Daniel Levy to sanction a move by failing to show up at the club’s Enfield training centre.
Tottenham striker Harry Kane has reportedly failed to report for training this morning after returning from his summer break
Kane is hoping to put pressure on Daniel Levy (right) to allow him to leave the club this summer
The forward, who has three years left on his contract, believes he has a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Levy but the Spurs chairman has made it clear he will refuse to accept a bid of less than £150m.
City, who are the frontrunners to sign Kane, are also closing in on a £100million deal for Jack Grealish.
Kane wants to join his England team-mate at the Etihad but could see his chances of a move hampered by Spurs’ demands.
Guardiola’s side want Kane and are looking for a replacement for Sergio Aguero but will have to raise money by selling fringe players to fund a move for Kane.
However, City have £45m from the sale of Leroy Sane to Bayern Munich last year and have already raised around £50m from the sale of players this summer.
More are due to be sold while there is an acceptance that the likes of Bernardo Silva could yet leave before the end of the window to further offset their spending.
But £150m could still prove to be too much for City to pay out, with Guardiola previously insisting the club could not afford such an outlay.
Kane put talks over his future on hold as he led England to the Euro 2020 final but is now stepping up his bid to move to the Premier League champions, two weeks before the start of the new campaign.
The striker is wanted by Manchester City, who are closing in on a £100m deal for Jack Grealish
Pep Guardiola is an admirer of Kane and the England striker could replace Sergio Aguero
Should he force through a transfer, he could swift return to north London with City facing Tottenham on the opening day of the season.
Kane is yet to win a trophy with his boyhood club despite his incredible goal-scoring record.
The striker has netted 221 times in 336 games and spoke of his desperation to win silverware in an interview Gary Neville in May.
‘I don’t know, I mean he (Levy) might want to sell me,’ Kane said in a conversation with his former England coach Neville for SkyBet’s The Overlap.
‘He might be thinking: “If I could get £100m for you, then why not?” Do you know what I mean? I’m not going to be worth that for the next two or three years.’
New Spurs boss has previously Nuno Espirito Santo tried shut down talk of Kane leaving
When questioned about how he thinks the difficult conversation with Levy will go this summer, Kane was quick to praise the chairman and insists they have always enjoyed a positive relationship.
‘I hope we have a good enough relationship,’ he adds, in the interview filmed last week. ‘I’ve given the club… well, I’ve been there 16 years of my life. So, I hope that we can have a good, honest conversation and see where we are at in that aspect.’
New Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo tried shut down talk of Kane leaving the club when he was announced as manager last month.
‘Harry is our player, period. No need to talk about anything else,’ the Portugese coach said.
‘Harry is one of the best players in the world, that says it all. I have no doubts in my mind.
Jack Grealish is close to a £100m move to City and Kane wants to join his England team-mate
‘What I wish is for Harry to recover well, to have a good rest and when he arrives he will feel that every one of us has to commit ourselves to become better. We are very ambitious people and we want to do it well, and no doubts on Harry on that.’
Tottenham fans are outraged by Kane’s failure to show up at training, with many believing he should be fined for his actions.
One fan took to Twitter to write: ‘Fine him and stick him in the reserves. Absolute lack of professionalism. He’s happy to take the £200k per week the club pay him.’
Another wrote: ‘If this is true Harry Kane should lose the England captaincy. The England captain should always be a role model for young players. And to not show up for training for the club that’s paying you! And you have a contract with is so disrespectful and unprofessional. Shame on Kane.’
‘If kane doesn’t turn up at all, he can go no one’s bigger than the club,’ another fan wrote. ‘I fully support it if Levy plays him in the u23s or sells him.’
Some supporters now believe it’s the time to move Kane on in an effort to rebuild the team.
‘Just sell him,’ one fan wrote. ‘This has already dragged on long enough. Anyone that doesn’t want to play for Tottenham can go, no one is bigger than this club’.
Referring to the possibility of a cash-plus-player deal with City, one fan wrote: ‘This is going to get messy. Take 120m and Laporte and move on. Lautaro Martinez, Damsgaard and Romero with the money.’
Another wrote: ‘Just sell him ffs before this turns nasty..absolutely no point in keeping a player who doesnt want to be there.’
A further tweet read: ‘Sell him, take what we can to rebuild this team even if it’s a player + cash deal! This club has been toxic for the past 3 years I’m done with it, lets move on!’