Manchester City waiting for Harry Kane outcome before deciding squad's 'leadership group'

Manchester City’s players will not finalise the dressing room’s “leadership group” until after the transfer window as they wait to see if Harry Kane signs for the club.

The Premier League champions remain hopeful of adding the Tottenham and England captain to their squad before the Aug. 31 deadline and the players have delayed a vote of their new captain’s group until Kane’s situation is resolved.

Fernandinho, City’s official club captain, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker formed the leadership group last term, with players each voting for who they think should be part of that dressing room committee.

Pep Guardiola suggested in May that Ruben Dias had also become part of that select band but a vote on the identity of the new group will take place once the window closes.

Kane is hopeful that his future will become clearer next week after Tottenham Hotspur’s opening Premier League fixture, at home to Manchester City, has been played.

Tottenham continue to insist that Kane is not for sale but City remain strongly interested in the striker, who is desperate to join them, and sources have indicated there has even been fresh dialogue between the clubs.

City are understood to value Kane at around £120 million, although there may be add-ons which could significantly boost that figure. While Spurs say they will not sell Kane, there have been informed suggestions that their valuation is around £160 million.

Having already signed Jack Grealish for £100 million it means that City are prepared to break the British transfer record twice in the same summer.

The situation around Kane is described by sources as “extremely sensitive” and has undoubtedly become more complicated because the two clubs face each other as the league starts this weekend.

Kane is due to return to training on Friday if he registers a negative Covid test to end his period of isolation. The 28-year-old took a day-five PCR “test to release” on Thursday morning to hopefully end his isolation. Kane has been staying at The Lodge, Spurs’ training ground accommodation, since returning to the UK from the Bahamas, via Florida, last Saturday and has been training on his own. His future, and whether he will be in the squad to face City will dominate manager Nuno Espirito Santo’s pre-match press conference.

Feelings are running high over Kane’s desire to leave, despite having three years left on his contract, with the player having sought to save face with angry Spurs fans by insisting last Friday that he had not refused to train after failing to return at the start of the week. Kane issued a statement via Twitter saying he had been “hurt” by comments “questioning my professionalism” and claimed he would be returning “as planned”.

That caused bafflement among some staff at Spurs, while Kane and Nuno held talks earlier this week for the first time since the Portuguese was appointed head coach. Nuno said he was keen to “solve all the situations”.

City undoubtedly still want to sign the England captain, but manager Pep Guardiola has stated they can only do so if Spurs are willing to negotiate. City and Kane hope that may happen once the game between the two sides is out of the way.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is acutely aware of the fans’ backlash he could face. Levy has been under huge pressure from supporters as the club have underperformed over the past two seasons, and over his involvement in the aborted European Super League plans.

There was never any chance of a deal being struck before the two sides faced each other, after the fixtures were released in June, but there is hope that negotiations could take place following the game.

Meanwhile Paul Coyte, who has been the popular match-day announcer at Spurs for 16 years, has announced that he has been let go. “I’ve found out that my work is now at an end at my beloved club,” he wrote on Twitter.

City have taken their income this summer to £59.9 million with the £8.5 million sale on Thursday of Serbia midfielder Ivan Ilic to Hellas Verona, where he spent last season on loan. Leroy Sane’s £55 million sale to Bayern Munich last summer was not included in City’s accounts for 2019/20 so they believe they have raised £114.9 million over the past 12 months to put towards the cost of moves for Grealish and potentially Kane. City expect that income figure to further swell with the departures of Yangel Herrera, Pedro Porro and Morgan Rogers this month and a senior player such as Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus or Aymeric Laporte could yet leave, too.

Meanwhile, Raheem Sterling believes Grealish’s arrival will help boost his goals tally this season as he warned his City team-mates not to expend needless energy by obsessing over the Champions League.

Sterling managed only 10 Premier League goals last season but he rediscovered his best form at the Euros for England and is determined to hit the ground running this term.

“It [Grealish’s signing] adds another creative player to this team which I am really excited about so hopefully he can add a few more goals to my tally,” Sterling said. “He is a player I believe can truly have a great career here. We know what we have to do, we have to come out fast in the league.”

On the prospect of going one better in the Champions League after last season’s final defeat to Chelsea, Sterling added: “The most important thing is to not put too much energy into that. We will be fine. That is part of our problem, to focus on it. The team we have here and the players, we should just be enjoying it, getting into our rhythm and it will happen.”