Athletic: Manchester City on verge of £100m Grealish deal, “determined” to sign Harry Kane

The headline to this article isn’t exactly a Tottenham Hotspur story, but it is extremely Tottenham-adjacent. According to the David Ornstein and others at the Athletic (£), Manchester City is very close to agreeing to a £100m transfer fee for Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish, a transfer that might — or might not! — have an impact on Harry Kane’s desire to move to the Premier League champions this summer as well.

According to The Ornacle & Co., Grealish is willing to make the move and Villa are poised to accept the bid, which would be the largest fee ever commanded for a British player, eclipsing Manchester United’s £89m bid for Paul Pogba. At least for now! Because in a different article, The Athletic writes that City are “determined” to also sign Kane this summer as well, and would be willing to pay as much as £130m to land him.

There have been reports from the City camp earlier in the summer, particularly from the Manchester Evening News (“not all MEN”) that claimed City would not be able to afford Kane should they choose to make a move for Grealish. That doesn’t seem to be the case now.

As for Kane, it is the third straight day of training he has missed, and reports emerged that he was NOT in fact quarantined after returning from holiday in the Bahamas as was reported by some in his entourage, but is in fact now in Florida and is planning to return to Tottenham’s training ground by the end of the week. The Athletic, however, paints a different picture, writing that Kane “had said his goodbyes” to Tottenham staff at the end of last season, and had told several England teammates during this summer’s EUROs that he did not plan to return to Spurs.

Tottenham, however, are still outwardly determined not to sell Kane this summer, though if the £130m price is accurate and Kane continues to make a stink about it, we’ll see how long Daniel Levy’s resolve holds.