Football
James Olley, Senior Writer, ESPN FC 3y

Harry Kane not focused on Tottenham transfer talk, managerial search

Harry Kane has said he is focused on England's bid for Euro 2020 glory to the extent he has not held talks over his Tottenham future or followed the club's chaotic search for a new manager.

The 27-year-old informed Spurs of his desire to leave the club this summer with sources telling ESPN that Manchester City are preparing a £100 million offer which could also include players as a further incentive for Spurs to offload their captain.

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Spurs are certain to reject that proposal given chairman Daniel Levy is reluctant to accept an offer for a player he values at around £150m. The club are also in a strong negotiating position given Kane has three years remaining on his £200,000-a-week contract.

Levy's more immediate priority is ending their long-running search for a manager having discussed the vacancy with a raft of candidates since sacking Jose Mourinho on April 19.

Former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo is favourite to take charge and the identity of the new man could become a key factor in whether Kane can be convinced to stay in north London.

However, when asked whether transfer talk had affected his performances for England, Kane said: "No, not at all, to be honest, I feel like when I come away with England I'm just fully focused on England. My brother is my agent, but the only time I've spoken to my brother really over the last few weeks is 'good luck, let's get a win, and let's take England all the way.'

"So it doesn't really bother me about the outside noise. When I'm here I'm with the boys, I try to help the boys, be a leader in the team. I need to get to know the boys, see what makes certain players tick and the younger lads, helping them, so I feel like I've got enough on my plate to worry about anything outside of England.

"That's where I'm at, and of course I feel like it's one of them where if you're not scoring as a striker, people look for every little angle why you're not scoring and that's probably the case in this tournament so far, but like I said, as long as I'm focused, I've got the self-belief I have, I'm not worried about anyone else."

Pushed on if he had followed Tottenham's managerial search -- which has included discussions with Antonio Conte, Paulo Fonseca and Gennaro Gattuso -- Kane told reporters at St George's Park: "No if I'm totally honest I don't really read anything, no media, and that's all your jobs.... but I honestly don't.

"The only thing I normally go on is Instagram and I don't really see anything [about Spurs' search] on there. That's just more pictures and things like that. That's just the brutal honesty. I just keep myself to myself, I watch my series, I'm with the boys playing pool or table tennis. I just try to stay away from it all.

"The most important thing is about us as a group and us a staff and as a nation and when you are in these tournament modes, sometimes it's easy to get caught away with other stuff but yeah, the experience I've had in the last few tournaments, is just to focus on this and do what you can in the moment and leave no regrets."

Kane is yet to score at Euro 2020 and failed to register a shot on target in England's first two games as the beat Croatia and drew with Scotland. There were signs of encouragement in their final Group D win against the Czech Republic which set up Tuesday's last-16 clash against Germany in front of 45,000 fans at Wembley and Kane believes he is ready to take his form to another level.

"People are quick to change their mind," he said. "It wasn't too long ago when I won the Golden Boot [as top scorer at the 2018 World Cup] and I was the best thing in the world, people were raving about you.

"That's why I've always said, as a footballer, you can't get too high or too low, you just have to have than neutral mode, self belief is a huge thing. I've always believed in myself. I could go 10, 15 games without scoring but give me a chance and I'd back myself to score it.

"I'm in a good place. Going into Tuesday night, physically, I'm in the best shape of the tournament so far, and that's what I kind of wanted going into this, I felt maybe in Russia I started on fire, scored loads of goals, then maybe didn't have my best performances in the most important games, the quarters and the semifinals.

"So coming into this, physically, I wanted to make sure I was peaking at the right time and obviously we won't know until Tuesday night if that's the case, but the way I feel, that's the way I feel it's going."

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