Harry Kane recently reiterated his desire to leave Tottenham; Fabio Paratici was appointed as the club's new managing director of football on Saturday; Daniel Levy has said that Spurs will be active in the transfer window despite incurring a significant debt due to the Covid-19 pandemic
Saturday 12 June 2021 21:07, UK
Harry Kane has been warned by Daniel Levy that the Tottenham chairman will protect the club's interests in the transfer market this summer.
Kane has told Spurs he wants to leave in the search of trophies after becoming frustrated at the club's lack of progress in recent years and his uncertain future has provoked the interest of some of Europe's top sides.
However, Tottenham are intent on keeping their star man, who has three years left on his contract.
Levy, who appointed Juventus' former football officer Fabio Paratici as the club's new managing director of football on Saturday, sympathises with Kane's frustrations but hinted a deal could be difficult to do.
"I am never going to talk about any specific player in public," Levy said on the club's official website.
"All I will say is his frustrations in not winning are shared by me and all the fans and players. We all want to win.
"One of the items that Fabio will have to deal with when he comes in is which players are going to be retained, which will be asked to look for other clubs.
"There is a market out there. What we want and what other clubs want is not always possible to achieve. We will do whatever is right for the club."
Levy confirmed Spurs will be active in the transfer market this summer, but was keen to restrict expectations about how much money they could spend.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the club hard as they are loaded with long-term debts to pay off their £1billion new stadium, which has been unable to recoup the revenue they were expecting.
"We have to be realistic where we are," Levy added.
"We are still in a pandemic, the consequences for this club have been more severe than any other club in the Premier League over £200m of lost revenue. Revenue we cannot recover.
"The timing of our new stadium could not have been worse. We have the most expensive stadium in Europe, the highest level of debt of any club in Europe.
"Fortunately for us it is long-term and we are in a good financial position in that sense. We have not been getting the revenues we had hoped for from our stadium and as a consequence we have to be careful over the coming years and be prudent.
"Our duty is to protect the club even though we want to win. We will spend but we are a self-sustaining club, we have to be sensible.
"Sometimes the fans think we should be spending but there have been circumstances when the coach hasn't wanted to spend on a player. We will make investments in the squad."
It is just over two years since Spurs were Champions League finalists under Mauricio Pochettino, having made back-to-back Premier League title challenges in the years before, but next season they will play in the inaugural Europa Conference League - the third-tier European competition.
Levy, who rejected claims he does not care for the club, added: "Things can change so quickly. We all know where we were two years ago.
"Are we satisfied with where we are today? Absolutely not.
"We need to turn it around but we need to make sure this club is in a sound financial position in the years ahead. We need success on the pitch now, my view is we have unfinished business."
