Peter Crouch defends Daniel Levy’s hard bargaining style to keep hold of Harry Kane

Peter Crouch believes Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy will continue to remain firm amid the ongoing transfer speculation surrounding Harry Kane.

The England captain has been the subject of a potential move to Manchester City throughout the course of the summer.

Pep Guardiola’s side are reportedly readying a fresh bid of £125m, after Spurs rejected a £100m offer from the Citizens back in June.

Levy, though, remains adamant that the minimum bidding for his prized asset in Kane will start at £150m – a figure that has been touted since the end of last season.

Former Spurs striker and England international Crouch has backed Levy’s valuation of Kane and claims the hard-bargaining chairman is doing it for the best interests of the club.

Crouch also recalled Levy’s tough stance first-hand when he was sold by the club to Stoke City ten years ago and compares his situation then to that of Kane currently.

In his latest column for the Daily Mail, he wrote: “Deadline Day, August 2011. I am sitting with Harry Redknapp in his office. Daniel Levy is on loudspeaker. The conversation is not going well. Daniel says that I’m off to the Potteries.

“I go home, upset at how the talks had transpired. I loved it at Stoke and spent eight happy years there but initially I didn’t fancy it. Negotiating at Spurs is not easy and Harry Kane will have found that recently.

“There are no hard feelings, and, if I owned a football club, I’d want Daniel to run it for me. That does not mean the whole experience was not exceptionally harsh and ruthless. It was raw then but now I understand he had the best interests of the club in mind.

“Kane has looked to progress his career for some time and City are willing to spend serious money. With me, their view was that they’d used me and now I was out.

“With Kane, it is the opposite — they are not done with him — but the tough conversations will be similar. A lot of people don’t see both sides of things. They are always very quick to blame the player.

“A lot has been made of the gentleman’s agreement, and although you hope those are honoured in everybody’s best interests, we have to be honest and appreciate that there is just too much money at stake for any of that in the modern world.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Crouch knows first-hand of the tough negotiation style of Levy, and many club directors will have experienced it too. For all of Levy’s flaws and mishaps in the transfer market at times, it can definitely be argued that what he is doing now regarding Kane is for the club’s benefit. After all, no one wants to see the club’s best player leave.

Related Topics