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England boss Gareth Southgate has warned Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane it is “very unlikely” his club future will be resolved during Euro 2020.
Kane, 27, is pushing to leave Spurs this summer with Manchester City leading Manchester United and Chelsea in a £150 million race for his signature, sources have told ESPN. The England captain is keen on having a move finalised prior to the finals starting on June 11 but chairman Daniel Levy’s reluctance to sanction a sale makes that a remote prospect as things stand.
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The final takes place at Wembley on July 11 and Southgate said: “I don’t feel I need to have a conversation with Harry Kane regarding focus or professionalism. He has one goal whilst with us and that’s to win the European Championships.
“He knows how important that is at this moment in time. What’s going on at his club is a matter for him and Tottenham. He’s obviously made some statements in the last few days although in many respects that’s out of the way now.
“Talking across the board here, I think it’s very unlikely that transfer deals will be done while we are away. That’s different when we have our camps in September. Very often we are on that deadline moment and every now and then we’ve had to facilitate a medical or a meeting between a player and a manager. I’m very realistic about those things.
“We’re not going to stop phones ringing — we can’t control conversations that are going on in private — but I think most deals are done at the end of the tournaments or in the first week after the end of the season. I would expect anything across the board with our players to be after the tournament.”
Kane’s future is just one of a myriad of issues Southgate is having to contend with as England finalise their preparations. The 50-year-old chose to name an expanded 33-man squad on Tuesday afternoon as a result of uncertainties surrounding the fitness of several players including Liverpool‘s Jordan Henderson, Aston Villa‘s Jack Grealish and Manchester United’s Harry Maguire.
Southgate will trim the group to 26 players next week after learning whether there are any further complications arising from Manchester United’s involvement in Wednesday’s Europa League final against Villarreal in addition to Chelsea and Manchester City facing each other in Saturday’s Champions League final.
“Really, I think our situation is more complicated than any other country at the moment,” he said. “We have known for a little while that of this 33, we’ve got 12 players still to play in the European finals this week so we were always going to need some additional players for the first part of our camp.
“Add to that, we’ve got some injuries that are at various stages — a couple that we have very little information about at the moment and a couple that are back into training or back into matches in Jordan and Jack Grealish but still not in training consistently, not training with the team in Jordan’s case.
“So we felt that more time is going to help us make better decisions. I’ve always said my preference was to name the squad as a clean 26. We were able to do that ahead of Russia.
“We had standby players that knew their role and that is always a preferable situation but we have not got an ideal hand of cards this time. There are a lot of unknowns. Information and evidence is really important when you are making decisions and we’ll have a lot more in the next seven days and we’ll be able to make the best possible decisions that we can.”
Southgate also confirmed there has been a change to his backroom staff after attacking coach Allan Russell left his post earlier this month having been fined £2,000 for allowing someone over the limit and uninsured to drive his car which was subsequently involved in a road-traffic accident. England have drafted in Newcastle United coach Graeme Jones on a temporary basis for the summer.
“We won’t make a like-for-like replacement in that sort or area but I’m disappointed for Allan and the situation that has occurred,” Southgate added. “But we are pleased to bring Graeme Jones in, who is obviously working with Newcastle at the moment.
“He has got fantastic experiences of working with Roberto Martinez as an assistant manager. So I am really pleased with Steve Holland, with Graeme and with Martyn Margetson in there, who has been to semi-finals with us and with Wales. We’ve got a really strong coaching team and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”