Tottenham told the two things they must do to stop Harry Kane wanting Man City move again

Harry Kane is set to come face to face with Manchester City after the blockbuster transfer that wasn’t when Tottenham visit the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Even though the England captain was absent when the sides met on the opening weekend of the season in August, he loomed large over Spurs’ 1-0 win after attempts to force through a move to City proved unsuccessful

“We tried but it was far away to be done because Tottenham was clear this is not going to happen,” Pep Guardiola said on Friday.

“And when [rejection] happens two, three, four times, it’s over. After we saw the squad and we were not sure [about signing anyone else] so we started.”

As City romp to wins at home and abroad without a conventional striker, it would be easy for Guardiola to say he has moved on, but he hinted Kane could still have thrived in his team.

“Now you can say, ‘Harry Kane didn’t come and everything is going well’ but at the time I didn’t know it - when we lost to Spurs and Leicester in the Community Shield. And I don’t know what will happen in the next few weeks.

“The club gave me these players and I’m always delighted, and now it’s [a matter of] what can we do together. Maybe if we had a proper striker we would play with a striker but with the players we have we have to adapt.”

It has also been a period of adaptation for Kane and his Spurs team-mates after Antonio Conte succeeded the doomed Nuno Espirito Santo. After an encouraging start under the Italian tactician, back-to-back defeats to Southampton and Wolves have Spurs heading to Manchester in a state of unrest once more.

Could this create the opportunity for City to go back in for Kane - a year old but a year closer to the end of his bumper contract - this summer?

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