Football is a ruthless, multi-million pound business where every decision is made with both sporting and financial considerations. However, in recent years more emphasis has been placed on the financial side of the game leading to record turnovers. For a football fan, the emphasis is on the sporting gain; for the board members, it has to be well balanced because sporting success is crucial to good sponsorship deals which in turn boost income. For the footballers though, it's a lot more complicated. They are the actors of the show; the ones we pay to watch, the ones board members hope will deliver sporting success that leads to financial success. Despite their crucial roles, they are also the ones who have no singular control over their career trajectories.
Harry Kane is an amazing striker, the best England had since Wayne Rooney waved goodbye to the beautiful game. With 267 goals for Spurs that made him their record goalscorer, he's definitely influential. Add that to the fact he is the captain of the English national team and one would expect his influence will be shooting through the roof. Right? Well, a very important Harry Kane wanted a move to Manchester City last season but was denied. One would expect a £150M bid to be enough to prize Kane out of Spurs, but it wasn't. Daniel Levy forced Kane to stay, and he watched in agony as City lifted another title while he fought tooth and nail for a top four finish with Spurs.
Recently, the talk has been about Manchester United reserving £100M to try and purchase a 29-year old Kane with just one year left on his contract. Still, more reports claimed Levy will never sell Kane to a Premier League rival. Kane definitely has ambitions to become the Premier League's greatest scorer. If he keeps his scoring rate, he should snatch that record in the 2024/2025 season at the ripe old age of 32. Now, it's either he stays another season at Spurs and walks away for free or gets shipped to another league entirely, putting his desire for the goalscoring record on ice. The point is, all these could've been avoided. When I saw the news in 2018 that Kane signed a 6-year contract, my instant response was WTF! Why would he do that and place his career in the hands of a ruthless negotiator like Levy? That was a ridiculous contract, one I'm sure he's regretted signing on numerous occasions after. Ever since, I've always looked at footballers signing more than four year contracts as unserious folks being pushed around by their greedy agents.
My early morning rant got triggered when I remembered the ridiculously long contracts Chelsea offered to their new signings all in a bid to beat FFP. I've seen some people applauding Chelsea for being smart, but all I see is a ruthless club playing yo-yo with the careers of young, talented footballers. A couple of these guys will not make the grade at Chelsea. So, what happens when a player with 6 years still remaining on his hefty contract finds himself surplus to requirements? He becomes an unwanted object, a piece to be moved about just to balance the books. With his hefty wages burning a financial hole in the club's pocket, the target will be to offload him with no single care about career growth or the player's desire.
Harry Kane will be 30 next July. He's the third highest goal scorer in the league's history with three golden boots to his name. Yet, he's never won the littlest of silverware for all his efforts at Spurs. Will he be satisfied with a trophy-less career despite the talent he has? I guess not. The truth is he could've avoided this debacle. I hope other footballers will learn from this and not be fooled by their agents into signing long term contracts that ties their destiny to a place they're either unwanted or no longer wants to be. Considering the events of the last transfer window, some people still don't get it. They will never learn!
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