Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo says he expects Harry Kane to remain at the club this summer, but what might happen on transfer deadline day is out of his hands.
Kane did not feature for Spurs as they opened their Premier League campaign with a 1-0 win over Manchester City, who the England captain wants to join this summer.
Spurs are insistent that Kane is not for sale and the noises coming out of City are that they will not be prepared to pay the £150million-plus that would be needed to get Daniel Levy to the negotiating table.
Kane trained on his own on Sunday morning and Nuno said after the City game that he is continuing to work hard to be in a position to help the team.
The 28-year-old on Monday was named in Spurs’ 25-man squad for the Europa Conference League play-off against Pacos de Ferreira, though all first-teamers except Tanguy Ndombele and Serge Aurier were included.
With the transfer window shutting in two weeks it is looking increasingly likely that Kane will stay at Spurs, but Nuno knows there is time for that to change.
“We have our squad, we have our Spurs players,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
— Harry Kane (@HKane) August 6, 2021
“We have to commit them but we have to know that 31st of August is sometimes not in your hands. All the managers in the Premier League have the same feeling that I have – trying to finish the window and settle down.
“Harry is [training] with us, he worked on Sunday morning and he’s getting ready to help the team.
“We don’t expect [something to happen before the transfer deadline but] we have to be ready to act if necessary because until the 31st anything can happen in football.”
Defender Davinson Sanchez says his side are ready to turn around the club’s fortunes after a tough couple of years.
Spurs got a new era off to the best possible start as they put the Kane saga to one side and beat City in Nuno’s first game in charge.
It seems a long time since Spurs were in the Champions League final two years ago and sixth and seventh-placed finishes have seen them lose their spot at the top table of English football.
The second half of last season was a particularly tough slog as Spurs slipped out of title contention, lost in the last 16 of the Europa League and finished outside the top six for the first time in more than a decade.
But the Colombian is determined to turn the situation around.
“There is always speculation and rumours about us not having a proper performance and for one reason or another we were exposed to a lot of people because we were conceding goals and losing matches,” he said.
“We are just working in the way that we have to do. We are not looking for any excuses, this has been hard because it has pained everyone to see not having the performances everyone expects.
“In this moment against City we were strong, we know the last season was very tough for everybody, not just for us as players, it was very tough for the fans and the club in general.
“It was very hard for everybody and everybody wants to turn the situation in our favour.”
