So, roll up, roll up. One ex-Premier League striker available (potentially) for a fixed price. Any takers? Anybody want to have a stab at trying to bring Harry Kane back to England’s top division?
OK, let’s not get too carried away by the news from Germany that Harry Kane has a release clause in his contract that means, in theory, his potential availability can be discussed in Premier League boardrooms this summer.
Realistically, though, does anyone see it happening? There are probably only two clubs in the Premier League that badly need an elite striker and might be in a position to offer Kane a place in the Champions League and a crack at winning the trophies that eluded him at Tottenham Hotspur. Step forward, Arsenal and Chelsea. And, yes, the chances of that happening can be accurately measured between minimal and non-existent.
Back in the real world, Kane is enjoying the view from the top of the Bundesliga and new adventures are opening up all the time. Vincent Kompany’s team are eight points clear at the 21-game mark. It will require a pretty spectacular collapse to deny them another league championship (their 34th, to be precise) and, on current form, don’t bet on it.
More than that, Bayern look like credible challengers for the Champions League judging by the evidence, certainly for the first 75 minutes, at Celtic Park on Wednesday — and the manner in which the six-time winners quietened a crowd that, before kick-off, felt like the closest thing in football to placing your head beside the loudspeakers at an Iron Maiden concert.
Yes, Bayern’s 2-1 victory has to be measured in the context that Celtic were willing but moderate opponents. The volume went back up after Daizen Maeda got one back for the Scottish champions and perhaps Bayern were guilty of thinking it was all a bit too easy. If so, it was a reminder not to take anything for granted in the return leg at the Allianz Arena next Tuesday.
Overall, though, it was rare to witness a game at this level being so one-sided for such long spells. And here too was the hard evidence why this is the ideal team for Kane at this stage of his professional life.
England’s record scorer will be 32 this summer and, if you have followed his performances at international level, you will appreciate he no longer has the speed of movement that helped make him such a regular destroyer of Premier League defences a few years back.
But then again, Kane does not have to be the most mobile centre-forward on the planet. Not for Bayern, anyway. Their team is filled with attacking players who are quick to the ball, who can interchange positions, make decoy runs on Kane’s behalf and, in their most eye-catching moments, accelerate past opponents.
Harry Kane has been prolific in front of goal since joining Bayern Munich from Tottenham Hotspur in 2023 (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
It is a blur of movement. Leroy Sane, Michael Olise and Jamal Musiala combine their elegant touches with hard running and old-fashioned graft, and it is shrewd of Kompany, eight months in the job, to understand that this can help Kane to concentrate on what he does brilliantly, which is getting away from his opponents, finding a bit of space inside the penalty area, even just a few inches sometimes, and scoring a bundle of goals.
Another one came here via a swivelling, expertly controlled volley and that means Kane has now scored 73 times for Bayern in 74 games since arriving for €100 million from Spurs in August 2023.
Last season, there were 44 goals, including 36 in the Bundesliga. This season, it is 29 in all competitions and counting. The numbers are staggering, including six hat-tricks in the Bundesliga and a four-goal haul against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League earlier this season.
Admittedly, Kane is still some way behind Gerd Muller’s record of 32 hat-tricks in the Bundesliga during the 1960s and 1970s, yet Muller had 15 years in Bayern’s colours whereas Kane has only just got to the 18-month mark. He is, in short, everything Bayern wanted him to be: even more prolific than his time at Spurs, where his record stood at 280 goals in 435 games.
“He has improved a lot since I played against him,” said Kompany, a four-time Premier League champion during his playing days with Manchester City, after Bayern’s win at Celtic. “He was already a top striker but he has improved a lot. And I get to see, first-hand, the reasons why he has improved.“
That’s quite some statement, to say Kane is more effective now than when he was playing for Spurs before Kompany’s 2019 departure from Manchester, but it all, according to his manager, comes back to his dedication to be the best striker in the industry.
“Even now, he’s still working as hard as a youth player who is trying to make it in the game,” said Kompany. “If you combine that with his talent and his skill, it’s not a surprise he is doing so well.”
Harry Kane scores against Celtic (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Last season, when Bayer Leverkusen won the Bundesliga, it was the first time in over a decade that Bayern could not call themselves German champions — and, this being the sport of schadenfreude, that was used against Kane, as if he was some kind of jinx after all the trophyless years with Spurs.
This season, nobody is questioning whether joining Bayern was the right move, especially now Tottenham are stuck in one of their intermittent crises, 14th in the Premier League with all sorts of heat on the manager, Ange Postecoglou, and fan protests against chairman Daniel Levy.
Spurs’s loss, to put it bluntly, has been Bayern’s gain. No other Englishman has scored more than Kane’s 36 in the Champions League and, listening to his current manager, perhaps it is also the case that nobody works harder when it comes to the art of goalscoring.
“He has got something special, of course, in front of goal,” said Kompany. “But he is quite relentless with it. He is not one of those players who takes off his flip-flops and he’s ready for the game. I’ve seen players like that, by the way. But in his case, it is all hard work.”
GO DEEPER
Secret meeting and late tension – the inside story of how Harry Kane left Tottenham for Bayern
(Top photo: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
