Harry Kane at Burnley! How Tottenham stopped transfer happening in sliding doors moment for England & Bayern Munich striker

Harry Kane’s career could have been very different had a transfer to Burnley gone through, but Tottenham were able to prevent that from happening.

• Burnley wanted Kane transfer
• Struggled in early EFL loans
• Later became record Spurs and England goalscorer

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  The north London heavyweights were always convinced they had a special talent on their hands, but a series of loan spells for Kane did not play out as planned. He hit nine goals through 27 appearances while on the books at Millwall.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  End product was in short supply across subsequent stints at Norwich and Leicester, leading to questions being asked of whether Spurs would be open to a sale. Sean Dyche, during his time in charge of Burnley, was among those to explore the option of securing Kane’s signature.

• WHAT DYCHE SAID

  Dyche told when asked about deals that he wishes had gone through: “The only one that I'm on record for was the Harry Kane one. That was because people think that I tried to sign him like being daft when he was up and running, but I didn't. I tried to sign him when he'd had a couple of loans that didn't really work that well.

  “He'd done really well at Millwall, which is when I first got eyes on him, because some of my mates I played with at Millwall were still there, and they really thought a lot of him. He was a very young man as well, but held his own in it. Millwall can be a tough place to play and he held his own and did well there. Then he went on a couple of loans and [became] a sort of bit part player coming off the bench.

  “So I, by chance, bumped into him on a holiday in Portugal, and his family, and had a chat with him, and it was his dad and just kind of made a phone call. But it was big money, even then. I mean, Tottenham are not mugs. I remember [former Spurs striker and now club ambassador] Clive Allen, telling me what a player he was and what a finisher.”

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  DID YOU KNOW?

  Dyche added: “I must make it clear, it was never close, [Tottenham] asked for big money and apparently money [at Burnley] was hard to come by with the chairman and the board, so we weren't going to pay that.

  “He was probably the one when I really chased as hard as I could, but the numbers were just too big at the time. They obviously realised they've got a real talent and what a talent he is without a shadow of a doubt, top, top player.”