Manchester City are willing to offer Bernardo Silva in any deal for Harry Kane but are prepared to miss out on the England captain altogether rather than meet Tottenham‘s straight asking price of £150million.
But Raheem Sterling, who is actively considering his future under Pep Guardiola after an unhappy last 12 months at the Etihad, has made it clear he doesn’t want to be a makeweight as Spurs are only in the third-tier Europa Conference League.
The Premier League champions, who have already offered £100m for Kane, would go up to £130m but consider Daniel Levy’s valuation too high.
Kane finally returned to Tottenham’s training ground on Saturday — five days after the club claimed he was due back — with his future still up in the air.
City, who have just splashed out a British transfer record of £100m on Jack Grealish, now believe the only way they can broker a deal with Levy is if the Spurs chairman accepts a lower price — or takes Silva in part-exchange.
Guardiola has made no secret of his admiration for Kane, last season’s Premier League top scorer. On Friday he hailed the Tottenham player as an ‘extraordinary striker’.
City lost Sergio Aguero last summer and failure to sign Kane would leave Jesus as their only senior striker, though Ferran Torres, Kevin De Bruyne, Sterling and Phil Foden can play down the middle.
Sterling, however, has made it clear he doesn’t want to stay at the Etihad if he has to endure another season where he is regularly sidelined by Guardiola.
Portuguese star Silva, according to the City manager, is one of a number of other players who are looking to leave the club, with his opportunities for starts diminishing further following Grealish’s arrival.
Kane, meanwhile, will complete his five-day quarantine period after returning from his holiday at the Spurs Lodge accommodation block, which is on site, so he can at least train on his own today.
However, he won’t be able to train with team-mates until Friday, when he will complete his quarantine, so he will certainly miss the opening game of the season, coincidentally against City at home next Sunday.
Kane has rejected claims he failed to turn up to training earlier in the week to help secure a move to Manchester City.
He broke his silence on Friday in a social media post claiming that he ‘would never, and have never, refused to train’, adding he would be returning to training as planned.
New Tottenham manager Nuno Espirito Santo confirmed on Friday that he had not spoken to Kane about the situation.
Meanwhile, Guardiola warned that his Manchester City team aren’t ready for the start of the Premier League season after losing 1-0 to Leicester City in yesterday’s Community Shield.
His squad contains so many Brazilian and England internationals, who reached the Copa America and Euro 2020 finals respectively and who will only return to training this weekend, that Guardiola insists it is impossible to be match ready for next Sunday’s season opener.
But he was full of praise for £100m signing Jack Grealish, who managed 25 minutes at Wembley, despite only having had four weeks off since he last played there in England’s Euro final loss to Italy.
Guardiola said: ‘How can we be ready when the players are training three or four sessions?
