Harry Kane Confirms He Is To Stay At Tottenham as England Captain Ends Manchester City Links

Tottenham striker and England skipper Harry Kane was rumoured to be moving to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City ahead of the looming transfer deadline of 31 August, but has opted to stay in North London for the time being.

Tottenham superstar Harry Kane has confirmed that he will stay at his boyhood club for the 2021-22 season, ending months of speculation about a potential switch to Pep Guardiola's Man City, who were in hot pursuit of the Englishman to solve their problems up front.

"It was incredible to see the reception from the Spurs fans on Sunday and to read some of the messages of support I've had in the past few weeks," Kane wrote on Twitter.

"I will be staying at Tottenham this summer and will be 100 percent focused on helping the team achieve success," he added.

It was incredible to see the reception from the Spurs fans on Sunday and to read some of the messages of support I've had in the last few weeks. 👏⚽

I will be staying at Tottenham this summer and will be 100% focused on helping the team achieve success. #COYS pic.twitter.com/uTN78tHlk1

— Harry Kane (@HKane) August 25, 2021

Kane remained Pep Guardiola's priority despite reports of City's renewed interest in Juventus forward and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy remained resolute and rebuffed all offers from City. He has often said that Kane, who has been Spurs' top scorer in the past seven seasons, is not for sale in 2021.

The Citizens, though, didn't lose all hope, and were banking on Kane's desire to leave his childhood club to seal the deal before the transfer window closes next Tuesday, English newspaper the Daily Mail reported.

The Spurs owner had already rejected several offers from the five-time English league champions despite the latter scaling up their bid from $103 million to $172 million.

Kane, who was the Premier League's leading goal scorer and top assist-provider in 2020-21, was key to Guardiola's plans at the Etihad stadium.

The City manager is desperate to find a world-class striker to replace Sergio Aguero, who left the side for Barcelona during the summer after becoming the club's greatest goal scorer of all-time.

Kane still has three years left to his Tottenham contract and Spurs' management, including Levy and coach Nuno Espirito Santo, have shown no intention to sell him to another club.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that former Manchester United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is keen to quit Juventus and join City this summer, even though he had labelled such talks as "frivolous" only a week ago.

The guessing game about Ronaldo's future with the Old Lady has intensified in recent days after he was benched in Juve's 2-2 draw against Udinese on Sunday.

But Ronaldo hasn't made his intentions to leave Turin public. He even announced that he would never join City as that would amount to a betrayal of the United fans, where he is still revered, despite leaving the club more than a decade ago.

Moreover, it was only last week when Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri emphasised that Ronaldo had informed him that he was not leaving the Serie A side.