Tim Sherwood: Daniel Levy wanted to sell Harry Kane to Leicester for £600,000!

Former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood has told William Hill’s new podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan, that before Harry Kane fully broke through at Spurs, Chairman Daniel Levy was prepared to sell him to Leicester City for £600,000. 

Sherwood appeared on William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, a new podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions whilst scrutinising their careers. Hediscussed Kane’s breakthrough into the Spurs team and Levy and sporting director Franco Baldini’s opposition to it: “I decided after a couple of weeks that it was the right time to throw him into the firing line. One Friday I walked off the training pitch and told Harry [Kane] that he was going to start the game tomorrow and he looked at me as if to say ‘yeah, about time’, and I liked that about him.

“As soon as I got inside Franco Baldini, the technical director, came over to me and said ‘the chairman wants to have a chat with you’. So we sit down in the office and Daniel Levy asks me ‘what’s the team tomorrow?’, and I talked him through it and as soon as I got to the end and said Harry Kane he instantly said ‘not Roberto Soldado or [Emmanuel] Adebayor?’ He’d never asked me for the team before so he’s asking me because he’s got wind that Harry Kane is playing and he wanted to question me. He said that I was devaluing a player [Soldado] that they’d paid £29 million for and I said to him ‘it never even crossed my mind that I was devaluing, I want to win the football match, do you?’

“He proceeded to tell me that they didn’t think Kane was Premier League standard, and I said, ‘who thinks he’s not Premier League standard?’ and he said ‘Franco.’

“Franco said, making an inverted commas gesture, ‘we’re looking for Champions League players’, and that they should let Harry go somewhere else. They suggested letting him go to Leicester as they had bid £600,000 and I said, ‘he’s playing tomorrow, so we’ll see how he does and take it from there’, and he came into the team and scored in his first three games and never looked back.

“If he would have told me that I couldn’t play him I would have said ‘well you go and stand in the dugout tomorrow then’, and Daniel knows I would have said it.

“Harry Kane has always had ability, whether it be dropping into the number 10 position or staying up and scoring goals as the number nine, his knowledge of the game was fantastic and he pretty much had everything, but unfortunately he kept getting loaned out. He wasn’t getting appreciated – he went to Millwall, Leyton Orient, Norwich and Leicester, and not one of those managers said he’d become a Premier League player.”

Spurs are a mid-table team without Kane

Speaking more generally about Harry Kane’s career and future, Sherwood said: “He wants to win, and he came very close under Mauricio Pochettino, reaching the Champions League final and a couple of League Cup finals, but they never crossed the line.

“Where would Tottenham be without him? I’d suggest that this season they’d be mid-table. If they got rid of him this summer I’d suggest they’d finish mid-table. He’s not going to be there forever and even if he stays there until he retires they have to start looking to build the club without Harry Kane, and they’re not doing that at the moment.

“If I was Harry I’d have a serious sit down with Daniel Levy, which I know he’s having, and decide where they want to go and when they want to make the decision. I think he stays this summer and leaves on a free at the end of next season when his contract expires. Why would he sign a new contract for another £100,000 a week when he can leave on a free and take his pick on where he goes?

“Obviously he’s going to be 30 years of age soon, but Harry Kane is one of the fittest players I’ve ever seen. There’s a misconception that he’s injured all the time, but he’s hardly missed a game this year and I think he only averages missing around six games per season. He’s a real machine, a powerhouse, a mentality monster as Jurgen Klopp would say.

“In the end he will go somewhere where he will win, and I’ll be delighted to see that. I think there’s two real options. It’s impossible that he goes to Arsenal, Chelsea maybe, and if he goes to Manchester United they would be immediately second favourites to win the league behind Manchester City. He could even go to Newcastle and it would be the same because he is a difference maker, he scores 20+ goals every season in the Premier League every season.”

You can watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hoXI6Adt5E.