Tottenham Hotpsur fans are accustomed to having any semblance of optimism quickly sledgehammered by reality and so it was fitting, really, that the departure of Harry Kane followed that familiar pattern.
Thursday began with news that Spurs and Bayern Munich had reached a deal worth £86m plus add-ons for the England captain, followed by reports that Kane was leaning towards staying at Spurs. But then just before midnight came confirmation that the 30-year-old had agreed to join the Bundesliga champions. It’s the hope that kills you.
The supporters left behind in north London have collectively gone through various stages of grief: denial that he would be going; anger at Daniel Levy for failing a generational, homegrown talent; depression at the prospect of a Kane-less Spurs; and finally acceptance that a move to Bayern plus cash is more palatable than a move to Premier League rival for nothing next year.
Spurs fans serenaded Kane before, during and after, last Sunday’s 5-1 thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk in which he scored four goals, with chants of “he’s one of our own” and “Harry Kane, we want you to stay”.
Afterwards, Kane did his usual lap of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium pitch, to applaud the fans. There have been occasions in the past when that saunter has looked like a goodbye. This time it actually was.
There never really is a good time to bid farewell to a legend, particularly one as indelibly linked to a club as Kane is to Spurs. One of the last one club men, until he no longer was.
“He’ll definitely be back at Tottenham one day in one capacity or another,” a reassuring Ange Postecoglou said on Friday. “When you have a career like he has at one football club, you’re never not part of it.”
But the timing of this deal, coming less than two days before Tottenham’s first Premier League game of the 2023-24 campaign is particularly galling, giving Postecoglou and his players an unhelpful distraction before the new era begins at Brentford on Sunday.
That Kane started against Shakhtar, as he did in other friendlies against West Ham and Lion City Sailors, indicates that Postecoglou, like the fans, was hopeful that he would stay.
Pre-season is a crucial period for new managers, offering them the chance to impart their tactical blueprint, assess the abilities of their squad, and start to piece together a team to start the opening game. Selecting players on their way out offers zero benefit.
Postecoglou was in corporate mode during his press conference on Friday, though, insisting that he had expected this outcome since his first discussion with the England captain.
“I guess the finality of it all today kind of hits everyone and everyone is going, ‘what next? what next?’ But this is not new for me,” Postecoglou said.
“When a player of Harry’s stature is going into the last year of his contract, you don’t need too much investigative research to know what’s going on. I knew going into it that this was the most likely outcome.”
The Australian is not going to jeopardise the opportunity of a lifetime by bad-mouthing his employers in public but privately he must be disappointed that this situation was not resolved far sooner. It has made a difficult job harder.
Postecoglou has already made a positive impression on Spurs supporters. He has spoken with honesty rather than in riddles, and already replaced the negative, counter-punching style of his predecessors with a more progressive, front-footed approach that fits the To Dare Is To Do ethos.
Most sensible fans will be prepared to grant Postecoglou time to turn things around, transform the club’s culture on and off the pitch and repair the disconnect that has long set in. Losing Kane in less-than-ideal circumstances will only extend that patience further.
Time will tell how prepared Spurs truly are to move on from their talisman, and Sunday’s test in west London will offer an early indication as to what their new-look frontline may look like and how it could operate.
Postecoglou was right to assert that there is no such thing as a “like-for-like” replacement for Kane, given his dual threat as a goalscorer and goal-creator. But there is no shortage of attacking talent still at the club.
The addition of James Maddison will help to alleviate the creative void that Kane will leave while also adding a goal threat from midfield, something that Spurs have sorely lacked since the days of Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli.
Maddison scored 10 times and provided nine assists for Leicester last season, an impressive haul given he missed eight matches through injury and was playing in a team that went down.
He will be the primary playmaker behind a front three that is likely to be more positionally fluid without a fixed point in the centre.
Richarlison, a £60m signing last summer and Brazil’s No 9 at the last World Cup, will have to step up after contributing just one Premier League goal in his debut campaign, as will Son Heung-min, who endured his worst scoring season since 2014-15 while hamstrung by a hernia injury.
Son will become the natural figurehead of a new-look Spurs attack, and quite possibly the new club captain too, and like Richarlison is well capable of operating from the left or through the middle. Dejan Kulusevski, Manor Solomon, Ivan Perisic and possibly even Pedro Porro, offer different skill-sets on the right.
Having relied upon Kane for so long, Spurs will now have to learn to adapt and evolve without him. Postecoglou will hope that process can happen as quickly as possible as he prepares to lead his team headfirst into the great unknown.
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