PLUS: Why Sir Jim Ratcliffe can still be a major success at Manchester United and how the Leicester squad are getting exactly what they deserve
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If Arsenal fans feel deflated at the end of the season for again finishing Premier League runners-up - which they should! - I’d suggest the perfect tonic for them would be to sign Harry Kane.
A flight of fancy? Perhaps, it depends on how deep the England captain feels his attachment to his former employees, Tottenham Hotspur.
But professionally it would make sense for all sides. Arsenal would get the prolific goalscorer to help them take the final step and Kane would give himself the best chance of winning a league title in this country as well as surpassing Alan Shearer as the Premier League’s leading marksman.
Both of which I’d suggest gives him a more meaningful legacy than a Bundesliga winners’ medal, which Bayern Munich achieve nearly every season.
Certainly, if Kane decided to return to his country next season with a £54million buy-out clause there to be activated, joining Arsenal would be a more sensible decision than returning to Tottenham, who need another £300m spent on players to become realistic challengers, something that is very unlikely to happen under the current ownership.
While there may be no economic resale value in Kane, becoming champions would open a raft of commercial benefits for Arsenal that would negate that concern.
I’ve no doubt Gunners fans would be delighted to see Kane in the red and white. They would regard it as the ultimate one-upmanship over their local rivals, and taking one of the best players in Tottenham’s history would give them even greater opportunity to ridicule them.
Of course, Kane will have other options, but maybe not as many good ones as he would want, given that he turns 32 in July.
Manchester City have Erling Haaland, Liverpool a variety of different goal outlets and Chelsea’s spending model is based on younger players with growth potential and sell-on value. Manchester United? Forget it, if you want to hit the ground running in a decent team right away.
The Newcastle project would be interesting and there may be a vacancy should Alexander Isak leave, although I don’t know who can afford the Swede's £100m-plus valuation. Real Madrid and Barcelona struggle these days because of financial rules in Spain.
If I was in the unfortunate and reprehensible position of choosing the career path of being a football agent, I would suggest to Kane he most certainly looks at all options, including Arsenal.
He is a big boy now, not a child, and will ultimately make his own mind up, but he needs a clear head to make a rational decision.
He has shown before that he is not beyond doing silly things, like a 'come and get me' interview with Gary Neville which killed his exit at the time from Spurs, or having his brother represent him without the prerequisite bottom feeder agency expertise.
Players have moved directly from Tottenham to Arsenal before. Sol Campbell still gets abuse from Spurs fans, but that was a unique situation. They felt he led their club up the garden path before going directly to the 'enemy'. Which, by the way, he did!
They are probably the same fans who cheered on Manchester City against their own team to prevent Arsenal winning the title and the same ones screaming for Daniel Levy to get out of the club.
Kane has already severed his ties with Spurs by joining Bayern. While certain sections of the Tottenham fanbase would see it as a betrayal for him to end up in another part of north London, you would hope most rational thinkers would understand he wants to take the best opportunity on offer. And while he was once part of the Tottenham family, players in the end have to look after themselves.
Pat Jennings is possibly a better example. He left Spurs for Arsenal, returned later in his career, and is much-loved at both clubs.
Mikel Arteta’s team have been knocking on the door without signing the required players to get over the line. Kane will not automatically lead them to the title – you could argue the major shortfall this season is losing Bukayo Saka to injury – but it’s undeniable that he would make them markedly stronger.
Shearer once let his heart rule his head by choosing hometown club Newcastle rather than Manchester United and sacrificing plenty of medals, but he had the luxury of having already won the Premier League at Blackburn. Kane is still searching for that.
I do like the idea that an emotional sport allows players to respect their former clubs. It’s why I don’t automatically condemn those who don’t celebrate scoring against old employees.
Even so, it’s naive and arguably unfair to expect never-ending loyalty from players. Fans have it most of the time, but a player’s job is to give to their best while under contract. You can’t expect their loyalty to be everlasting from their first waking moment as a professional to the last. That goes for Kane as much as anyone else.
He may instinctively loathe the idea of playing for Arsenal but, if he wants another crack at the Premier League and Arteta shows interest, it would be silly not to hear him out at the very least.
Why Sir Jim can still get it right
I don’t know Sir Jim Ratcliffe personally, so can’t say whether being in the papers endlessly feeds his ego, but sometimes you have to remember it’s the Glazers, not him, who are majority shareholders of Manchester United.
No-one talks about the Glazers now, so Ratcliffe has done them a solid because he has become the story.
Ineos are trying to get out of other sports-related deals, but I’ve not heard they are struggling as a commercial operation so don’t think it is a case of Ratcliffe running out of cash. If he’s making redundancies at United it will be to save money, not because they haven’t got any.
I don’t feel there is going to be a car crash at United, although in football normal business vagaries don’t always exist because some silly b*****d at the top is always going to write a cheque to cover somebody else’s shortcomings.
Successful people from outside can come into the sport and look at aspects of it differently.
More often than not, despite making initial inroads into adopting better business practices inside their new shiny assets, they learn to move the needle slightly and get on with it, even if what they have paid for something isn’t worth it, either economically or emotionally.
Leicester players and owner getting what they asked for
Leading voices in the Leicester City dressing room were instrumental from what I understand in driving a wedge between former boss Steve Cooper and the owners.
The ownership took the direction of the players over their manager and have now got their ‘rewards’.
Leicester are in a far worse position in the table and, barring an improbable turn of events, heading for relegation.