REPORT: Manchester United are feeling out a summer transfer for Harry Kane

Because when things are really bad sometimes it actually CAN get even worse, our good friend Matt Law has a piece in the Telegraph suggesting that Manchester United have made initial inquiries about a future bid for Harry Kane this summer. The implication is that Kane is very unlikely to want to extend his existing Tottenham Hotspur contract, which expires at the end of the 2023-24 season, and United are willing to see if they can bring Kane to Manchester this summer.

Now look, far be it from me to tell you to agree with, or even believe, something Matt Law has written about Tottenham Hotspur. One thing we can all agree on is that if there’s an angle to a story that will cast a negative light on Tottenham, Law will find it. That said... he’s probably right. It’s becoming crystal clear that this Tottenham side is imploding and will need a complete reset going forward, and Harry Kane is likely a very large part of that reset. United is quite likely going to attempt to test Daniel Levy’s resolve to hold on to Kane at any cost.

Kane already expressed a desire to leave the club in 2019 when he went golfing with Gary Neville and tried to force a move to Manchester City. It’s kind of hard to fathom that he’s going to want to be part of what looks like an extensive from-the-ground-up rebuild in the last few years of his career, when what he really wants is to win something, anything. It wouldn’t shock me at all if he wants out.

And honestly, if the club’s getting BLOW’D UP GOOD, then Kane should probably be sold. I know he’s a club legend and we’ll likely never have another player like him our lifetimes that comes from the academy the way he did. If he goes, it’s going to be incredibly painful and traumatic for fans. And yet, selling your aging superstar to fund the refresh of the squad to pave the way for the next great Spurs team is the kind of difficult decision that smartly-run clubs make.

As has been expressly illustrated, however, this is not a smartly-run club, and there have been past hints that Levy intended to keep Kane as long as possible and had no intentions of selling him to anyone, especially not to a league rival.

But you know what? I kinda think all bets are off now. We may or may not be currently at the nadir of this club in the last 20 years (honestly, we could get even more nadir-er before it’s all said and done), but the writing’s on the wall in BIG RED SANS-SERIF LETTERS. We know that Spurs want to be a progressive, pressing team and they’re going to have a hard time doing that with Kane in the side going forward. A lot of it depends on any hypothetical United bid and how much it is, but I’ve kind of reached the point where if Spurs want to progress as a club and he wants to go, then we should make every good faith effort to let him go.

(But United’s still gotta pay good money.)