Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that he and Harry Kane exchanged messages as the striker’s exit from Tottenham drew near and confirmed that Son Heung-min could end up playing as a central striker for him but the fans must be wait for Alejo Veliz. Kane is set to complete a move to Bayern Munich that will be worth around £100m initially to Tottenham and potentially £120m with add-ons. The 30-year-old told Postecoglou on the first day they met that he would like to move to the German club if a deal could be agreed but was happy to stay and play for him if that did not happen. In the end a deal was agreed and as it neared its conclusion, the England captain, who has enjoyed working with the Australian, got in contact with the Spurs boss.
Ange Postecoglou said: “He sent me a message and I sent him a message back. I don’t think either of us were surprised by the outcome. We’d been talking about it all along anyway, whether that’s about his situation or the club. The way I treat these things is that while they’re here, they’re still part of the club. I don’t isolate them or treat them differently because they might be leaving. We had discussions along the way so it wasn’t a surprise or something for either of us to address.”
Postecoglou would not divulge the contents of either message and was not aware if there was a buy-back clause in the deal for Kane, but believes the striker will return at some point.
Ange Postecoglou said: “No idea, mate. No idea about the details of the deal. He’ll definitely be back at Tottenham one day in one capacity or another. When you have a career like he has at one football club, you’re never not part of it.”
Now it is time to see who emerges from Kane’s shadow at Tottenham to become the main man up front, with Richarlison set to lead the line at least to begin with.
Ange Postecoglou said: “Potentially [players will emerge]. All you can do is create that space and see what grows from there. There is sometimes that element where people supress themselves to an extent because they understand that there is a unique individual in the room that has such great presence and is such a force on and off the field. Having that space there maybe does [bring people out], but there’s no guarantee it does either. The opportunity is there. Put it that way. With all these things there’s opportunity. What you’ve got to try to do is what the great clubs do, the great organisations: replace greatness with greatness. How that comes about is not easy, but that’s what the big clubs do. They find a way to sustain and maintain and grow even when the greatest leave their doors.”
One player who has always stepped up when Kane has been absent in the past is Son, so could the South Korean star become a more central striker under Postecoglou?
Ange Postecoglou said: “Yeah, I wouldn’t rule it out. I’ve known Sonny for a long time and watched his career develop. There’s no doubt he could play centrally, especially with the way we play. That’s where the nuances lie. Managers have different ways of setting up their teams and with some teams, I could see how Sonny couldn’t play as a central striker but the way we play, and the way we’re going to play, I definitely see him as an option as a central striker.”
Tottenham also signed 19-year-old Veliz this summer from Rosario Central after he made a big impact in the Argentinean top flight but Postecoglou urged caution to anyone who thinks the Argentina U20 striker is ready for Premier League football this year.
Ange Postecoglou said: “It will be a while for him, I think. We’ve just got to let him settle, he’s come halfway around the world. He’s a young guy, it’s a fairly different level. He’s one we’ll invest in in the long-term but I wouldn’t expect him to see any minutes in the first part of the season.”
Postecoglou bristled at the suggestion that Kane leaving was like ripping off a plaster so life after him at the north London club can begin to move on and perhaps even be better as a collective without the star striker.
Ange Postecoglou said: “That’s doing a great disservice to a guy who did some unbelievable things. There wouldn’t be a manager in the Premier League or the world that wouldn’t want Harry Kane in their team. That’s the reality of it. So you can’t say that because he’s here that’s sort of stymied the club into having success, I just don’t buy into that. I just think he’s done his utmost to try to have success at this football club and it hasn’t worked for him for a number of reasons. What we do know about this game, it’s very, very, very rare that an individual will be the difference. It’s usually the collective so what that offers now is an opportunity to build a collective that brings us success and within that context you still want outstanding individuals, you still want the best players, that doesn’t change. You don’t dismiss someone just because he’s been part of something that hasn’t been successful. That might be because of other reasons, rather than what he brought to the team.”
Postecoglou also confirmed he knew that he would not be working with Kane beyond pre-season from the moment he took the job at Tottenham.
Ange Postecoglou said: “Yeah pretty much. It wasn’t part of the contract negotiations that I needed certain players to stay. You do due diligence when you take a job and hopefully I was well researched enough to know what was going on in the background. You have these conversations with people and it was in the public arena. When a player of Harry’s stature is going into the last year of his contract you don’t need too much investigative research to know what’s going on. I knew going into it that this was the most likely outcome.”
On Kane choosing to go to the Bundesliga and Bayern,
Ange Postecoglou added: “I’m reticent to get into other people’s shoes because I wouldn’t be comfortable for people speaking for me. Harry has his own circle of people he speaks to about why he’s come to this decision in his life and career. He’s the best one to explain. Whether I understand or not is irrelevant because I don’t have all the information. He does. It’s easy for me to sit here and say, ‘Well, I would’ve stayed’ or ‘I would’ve gone’ but I don’t live his life or know where he’s at. If people were to make assumptions about me and my decisions, about why I do things I’d think that’s unfair so I won’t do that with Harry.”
Tottenham and their players will move on but when asked what the mood was like in the dressing room after the news of Kane’s impending exit, Postecoglou admitted that he was not the man to provide the answer.
Ange Postecoglou said: “I don’t really venture into the dressing room – I leave that to the players. I found out fairly on in my career that football clubs move on pretty quickly. I think we dwell on things when the players know there is no time to. After 48 hours they have their first Premier League game – that is where their focus is. I am sure Harry will reach out at some point to the players but he has not been at the training ground to say his goodbyes. The mood is the mood you would expect two days from the start of the season – they are pretty focused on making sure they are ready.”
Ange Postecoglou added: “I didn’t wake up this morning trying to cultivate that [need to fill the void] – that’s been happening all along. It’s difficult for all of you to see that because you’re not here every day but I’ve been trying to do that anyway. I guess the finality of it all today kind of hits everyone and everyone is going ‘What next? What next?’ But this is not new for me. This is five or six weeks of knowing it was going to happen so we have been contemplating that anyway in the way that we have been going about things. So nothing really changes there.”
