Simon Jordan believes Tottenham Hotspur could be offered a chance to sign West Ham loanee Jesse Lingard as part of a deal that would see Harry Kane move to Manchester United, speaking to talkSPORT (23 May, 10am).
With funds tighter than Superman’s underwear right now it’s hard to imagine anyone – from Madrid to Manchester and Catalonia to Chelsea – paying the sort of fee Daniel Levy will demand for Spurs’ want-away skipper this summer.
According to The Telegraph, Spurs’ notoriously hard-stanced chairman is unlikely to let Kane go for a penny less than £150 million.
And that means, in this most strained of markets, Kane’s many suitors will have to get creative, potentially throwing their own players into the mix to drive down the price of arguably English football’s most valuable footballer.
Manchester United certainly aren’t short of potential cast-offs either.
And Lingard, the £40 million-rated playmaker who has been nothing short of a revelation since joining West Ham on loan in January, is certainly a leading candidate to emerge as a makeweight in a deal that would see Kane swap north London for Old Trafford.
“They (Manchester United) will start throwing players into the mix,” says former Crystal Palace chairman Jordan.
“If you’ve got people like Lingard, who have gone out to West Ham, have suddenly found their straps again, and want to be at a club that’s perceived to be a big club, you can see some of that transfer burden being taken away by other players being thrown in the mix.
“So Tottenham taking someone like Lingard in exchange for Harry Kane, plus £100 million, or Anthony Martial or someone of that nature… you can see how the deal holds together.
“But it will still be Tottenham extracting maximum value.”
According to the Daily Mail, Spurs’ recruitment staff are in the process of identifying players who could potentially replace Kane in a player-plus-cash swap deal.
And it’s understood Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus and long-standing transfer target Martial are two likely options.
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