Balague: Real Madrid may use Kane as a smokescreen for their real summer target

Death, taxes, Real Madrid bidding on Harry Kane this summer. It’s been a foregone conclusion for what feels like months now that Madrid will be making a concerted effort to sign Tottenham Hotspur’s homegrown star when the summer transfer window opens at the end of the season. And while they’re at it, they might just take Spurs’ manager as well.

But one person who thinks it might not happen is Guillem Balague. The author and football pundit was asked by Sky Sports whether he thinks that Kane would be targeted with the requisite mammoth bid to become the newest Galactico, and his response was rather interesting.

“Are they going for Harry Kane this summer? There will be suggestions, there will be rumours but I do believe that they think Kane will not leave Tottenham this summer. At the moment they are not convinced he will move in the summer, with the emotional link to Spurs and to Mauricio Pochettino, but also while Cristiano is there Kane has not got much to do.

“In any case Real Madrid may use Kane to distract from the focus of their real attention which is Cheslea forward Eden Hazard.”

Balague has earned a bit of a reputation as having inside information with Tottenham after the release of his book “Brave New World” about Mauricio Pochettino and Spurs’ 2016-17 season. It’s this reputation that makes me think that he might be on to something here.

It’s safe to say that under no circumstances will Tottenham sell Kane to any club in the Premier League. Harry is the only world-class striker that is not at a top club at the moment, and while Real is the only non-Premier League club that doesn’t already have a top striker, Balague is probably correct that Kane is likely to be marginalized somewhat as long as Cristiano Ronaldo is still in Madrid.

The implication that Madrid might use the Kane interest as a stalking horse to go after Eden Hazard is very interesting, however. If that is the case and it results in the further weakening of Chelsea, then I support Madrid’s transfer policy 100%.

If Balague is right, that doesn’t at all mean that we’re not still due for several months of annoying transfer speculation. That’s happening regardless, so we might as well get used to it. But this would be a pretty okay situation at the end of the day: we keep Kane, Chelsea loses, and Madrid gets their guy. Sounds pretty good to me!