‘I kept this Harry Kane statement under wraps at Tottenham – I never wanted it out there’ | Football | Sport

Mauricio Pochettino’s former assistant Jesus Perez has disclosed how Tottenham hierarchy attempted to persuade the coaching team to issue a public statement that could have dramatically altered Harry Kane’s career trajectory.

During the 2014 summer transfer window, Spurs were actively pursuing a new striker and had identified Manchester United’s highly-rated Danny Welbeck as their primary target. Yet the forward opted to join north London adversaries Arsenal in a £16million transfer instead.

Had Tottenham succeeded in landing Welbeck, Kane would have faced an uncertain future at the club. In an attempt to save embarrassment and downplay suggestions they had lost out to their fiercest rivals, Tottenham urged Pochettino to issue a public declaration claiming he had no need for additional attacking reinforcements, given his satisfaction with the then-20 year old Kane serving as cover for Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Perez believes that had Pochettino acquiesced to the club’s request, it might have destabilised his promising youngster.

“It was key in that moment the way Mauricio protected Harry,” Perez revealed on the High Performance Podcast. “I remember a meeting that was tough with the club in terms of communication.

“It was public that Welbeck could come and join the team therefore Harry would like to go.

“But once Welbeck signed for Arsenal, the club suggested that Mauricio should do a statement saying ‘I am happy with the three strikers’.

“Mauricio said ‘that is not necessary for me to say. If I say that then I am giving the impression to Harry that I really wanted another one to come and not him’.

“From day one I was very happy to Harry to stay with us and to take time to succeed. That statement never came out. It was super important to protect Harry and to give the feel of ‘I really trust you’.

“It was not up to Mauricio to say that. There are those things in management that nobody sees but define the career of a player.”

When Perez was questioned whether Kane would have faced significantly greater scrutiny had the statement been released, he responded: “Yeah, easy. It looks like the statement was to protect ourselves [and say] ‘we are happy with these guys’.

“But why are you taking a statement? It is probably because you were after another one.”

Pochettino went on to explain: “I was happy with those three. I didn’t need to make statements because I’m not bothered what people think.”