The odds on Harry Kane joining Real Madrid next summer have dropped to evens after the England striker delivered another magnificent September. Kane banged in 13 goals during the month to equal the record set by Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the most productive September in history. The Spurs forward now has a better goals per games ratio in 2017 than any other striker, ahead of Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Edinson Cavani, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ronaldo. He has now overtaken Man Utd’s Romelu Lukaku to be named the 7/4 favourite to win this season’s Golden Boot with Bet365, William Hill and various others, and that looks a great bet. That will excite Spurs fans, but more worrying will be the speculation linking him with a move away from the club.
Real barely spent a penny in the summer and the European champions have seemingly been punished for it with a poor start to the 2017/18 campaign. They say that if you stand still you go backward and Los Blancos will not want to make the same mistake twice, especially when you consider their rich history of signing Galacticos. Kane fits the bill perfectly and he could be tempted by a move to the world’s biggest club.
For all Tottenham’s recent success on the pitch – they finished third in 2015/16, second last season and are on an upward curve with a young and exciting squad – a story developed in the summer that will cause consternation among the fans. Danny Rose publicly criticised Tottenham’s wage structure and said he deserves more money, while other players may be thinking the same. Right-back Kyle Walker defected to oil-rich Premiership favourites Man City and quadrupled his wages, and teammates may now fancy earning that sort of compensation for their footballing exploits.
Walker can be written off, but the real jewels in the crown are Kane, Dele Alli and to a lesser extent Eric Dier. They are the best three English players around right now, and it is Kane that has come to the fore once again on the back of his goalscoring heroics.
Kane has an instinctive nose for goal and has been in lethal form in the Champions League too, causing Europe’s elite to take notice. Cristiano Ronaldo is ageing but still has plenty of life left in him, and it is teammate Karim Benzema that may be feeling a little nervous. The Frenchman has long been tipped for the exit from the Bernebeu but a quality replacement has not been forthcoming. Kane could be the future of Real Madrid if they were to snap him up as he could become even deadlier if he benefited from the sort of service Ronaldo and comopany currently enjoy.
Spurs and Real have done business before, in the world record-breaking transfer of Gareth Bale, and Real are now the 9/4 favourites to be Kane’s next club. It would probably take another world record fee, but Real are sitting on a big pile of cash and could be prepared to spend £200 million on his services. The odds on Kane leaving next summer are now 9/4 with Ladbrokes and it has opened a book on his next destination: Real are at evens, followed by PSG at 4/1, Barcelona at 5/1, Man City and Man Utd at 6/1, Bayern Munich at 8/1 and Chelsea at 16/1.
Utd have long been interested, but Kane seems to genuinely love Spurs and if he were to leave he may go abroad to avoid facing his former club on an annual basis, and Real look a good bet right now. Of course, he could be tempted to stay in England and you can get 7/1 with Sky Bet on him scoring 260 Premiership goals in his career, which would see him move level with Alan Shearer as the league’s all-time record goal scorer.
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