Tottenham’s chairman, Daniel Levy, has insisted Harry Kane can fulfil his ambition of winning a trophy with the club. Kane is approaching the final 12 months of his contract and there are concerns over his future with no manager in place and another season soon to end without silverware.
Tottenham’s record goalscorer has often made clear his desire to win trophies and is expected to be a target for clubs in the Premier League and abroad this summer. Kane said in January, after breaking Jimmy Greaves’s Spurs goalscoring record, that he expected to have talks with the club regarding his contract “over the coming months”.
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Levy, giving a rare interview, at the Cambridge Union debating society, said: “He can absolutely win a trophy at Spurs, but being a legend is also important. The fact that he’s the top scorer for Tottenham Hotspur, he’s making history. I hope one day there is a statue of Harry Kane outside our stadium.”
Levy has been at Tottenham since Enic bought the club in 2001. During a session of more than 40 minutes held in Cambridge on 14 March but released on YouTube on Wednesday, he reflected on a number of issues, including a trophy drought since 2008.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” Levy said. “In the [past] 22 years Tottenham has progressed enormously in that time period,” he said. “Not as much as a fan would hope but the journey’s not over and we’re still hoping that we are going to get that trophy that we need.”
He tried to put the club’s record under his chairmanship in perspective. “When we first came into Tottenham winning was making sure we stayed in the Premier League,” he said. “And then as time goes on and we got more successful it’s about getting into the Europa League, getting into the Champions League. And obviously the ultimate is to win the trophies. So that is clearly what we are trying to do. It’s easier said than done.
“Am I happy that we haven’t won more than one trophy in the last 15 years? Absolutely not. But I also think we have had some fantastic times; we’ve been in the Champions League a number of times. And despite the fact that I feel sick that there’s a club in north London [Arsenal] that’s a bit higher than us at this moment in time, if I look back over the last five years we’ve also been above them, so that’s what happens.”
Recent months have brought speculation over the long-term ownership of Tottenham with talk of outside investment and prospective buyers preparing bids. “Levy out” chants have been audible this season. “We have a duty to consider any proposal anyone wants to make,” Levy said. “All I would say is we are not in negotiations with anybody. Nor have we been over recent months.”
Levy raised the prospect of teams playing a competitive game abroad when asked whether in the next five years he envisaged Premier League matches being taken overseas. “I think there may be some pressure for one or two [Premier League] games to be played overseas but I think it will probably be resisted,” he said. “I would suspect more likely you will see a cup competition played overseas.”
