Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy wanted to sell star man Harry Kane to Leeds United in the summer of 2014.
That is according to former Spurs scout David Magrone, who worked at White Hart Lane between 2012 and 2014 and was privy to the behind-the-scenes transfer chat at the club.
Magrone has claimed that it was only because of the intervention of former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood that Levy did not accept an offer from Leeds for Kane to move permanently to Elland Road three years ago.
At that stage Kane was on the Tottenham fringes and had made only a minimal impact during loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester.
“There was serious consideration among the hierarchy at the club to letting him go to Leeds because he’d been out on loan and had never really set the world on fire,” said Magrone, as quoted by the Mirror.
“But Tim [Sherwood] knew he was a Premier League player in the making, and really didn’t want to let him go, even if the chairman (Daniel Levy) possibly did.”
“It wasn’t like he was costing the club too much or anything like that, it was really a question of whether he was going to make it at Tottenham.
“It was really only Harry’s desire to dig and prove himself at the top level and Tim’s belief in him that stopped him going (when the offer came in).
“He backed his ability and the rewards are fully deserved. I don’t think he once seriously considered going.”
OPINION
One of the many remarkable things about the rise of Kane was that so few football men saw it coming. Sherwood was almost a lone voice claiming that the then 21-year-old was the real deal with the potential to be something special. Tottenham have been the beneficiaries of his astonishing foresight, with Kane banging in 112 goals in just 177 matches for the club and reaching a level that has made the world’s biggest clubs consider £150million-plus bids for the London-based goal machine. Leeds fans can probably console themselves with the fact that he would only probably have lasted a season anyway at Elland Road had his many qualities become apparent while wearing the club’s white jersey.