Thomas Tuchel has admitted he thought Harry Kane would have left Tottenham Hotspur this summer and joined Manchester City as the reigning Premier League champions made a somewhat feeble attempt to lure the marksman to the Etihad, as it turned out. Had Kane signed for City, they could well have bene untouchable this season with the addition of Grealish as well but as it turned out, City’s title rivals this season including Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief when Kane stayed put. Tuchel was asked about that scenario of Kane at the Etihad on Friday ahead of Chelsea’s visit to Kane’s employer this weekend
Thomas Tuchel said: “I thought that this [the transfer ]was going to happen. No I was not scared, but if it would have happened I would have been very interested in how maybe it was have changed Manchester City’s style of playing. We are not afraid of anyone. We accept any team and Manchester City, Man United and Liverpool, they are the teams strong like no other in this league and they have strong squads. These are the guys with whom we want to compete and it’s normal that they fight for the best players and I thought this is maybe going to happen. On one side I was happy that he stayed because it is also nice that it exists in football that players play for one club only and so Harry Kane is Tottenham and even for me I have absolutely nothing to do with Tottenham, I have never worked for them, when I think about Tottenham in the last decade you think about Harry Kane and this is very nice. Like you think about [Lionel] Messi and straight away you think about Barcelona and it is very hard to think that he plays for another club now and that’s the same for Harry Kane. So from this side I was happy because I like it and a part of my personality is still a fan and I like that things like this happen. It is also nice that Romelu is back at Chelsea and some things are a good fit and should not be changed.”
Tuchel also added he never approached Blues director and transfer supremo Marina Granovskaia about a potential move for Kane this summer as the German tried to solve a striker issue of his own. Plenty of reports emerged that Chelsea were in the running to sign Kane but, realistically, Chelsea’s somewhat fractious relationship with Spurs put any move to bed almost as quickly as the reports came out.
Thomas Tuchel added: “We never had a list with his name on it and I never went to Marina to tell her to buy him [Kane]. But the club sorted out the situation. There are many people around players their agents and advisors and people in between and we had some information from these people but it was never that close that we had to experience the rivalry. We know about the rivalry but I had a feeling that it was never that far.”
