Harry Kane's departure from Tottenham would signal the end of a great, but FAILED, era at the club

Harry Kane rocked the Premier League on Monday evening after he informed Tottenham of his desire to leave the club this summer.

It’s the news all Spurs fans have been dreading for some time, given how crucially important the 27-year-old is to the club.

Kane’s desire to leave Spurs has been an open secret for over a year – and he has now told chairman Daniel Levy he wants to join a new club before next season.

The writing has been on the wall for some time now, though, given how Kane said four years ago how he expected to win some silverware with the club by 2020.

‘I just want to win trophies,’ Kane told Sky Sports in 2017. ‘I just want to win.

‘I don’t think there’s a day that goes past where I wake up and [don’t] think, ‘I want to win something, I want to win the Premier League, I want to win the Champions League, I want to win the FA Cup’.

‘And in three years time, if I haven’t won a few trophies by then, it will be disappointing. When you walk in the training ground there’s got to be a wall saying Premier League winners or FA Cup winners or European [Cup] winners.’

Now, with no winner’s medals in his collection, Kane believes it’s time to leave the club he has been with since 2004.

The news on Monday will likely spark a £150million bidding war between Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea, with Kane understood to want his future resolved quickly — ideally with a move sorted by the start of the Euros. The tournament starts on June 11.

But what does this mean in the grand scheme of things for Spurs and their immediate future? Are there any positives to come from selling their talisman or is it all doom and gloom? 

Sportsmail takes a look at what is set to be one of the summer’s biggest stories.

So… what does this mean for the rest of the squad?

It is not quite clear just yet how Kane’s exit would impact the rest of his Tottenham team-mates.

Son Heung-min, along with Kane, were lined up for new contracts in the first half of this campaign when Spurs were flying high at the top of the table under Jose Mourinho.

Those talks were temporarily shelved by the club, who are now waiting for a clearer picture of their financial position once the campaign is done and dusted. 

But with the hope of securing Champions League football a pipe-dream and Europa League now looking like the best they can hope for, Kane’s desire to leave might see others in following suit and Son unwilling to put pen to paper on a new deal.

Son has two years left on his current Spurs deal and Levy will be desperate to keep hold of the South Korean, especially if Kane goes.

The 28-year-old would likely become the new man to build the squad around given his star status at the club.

Meanwhile, the likes of Dele Alli and Hugo Lloris could push for moves away from White Hart Lane, bringing down the curtain on an era that took them to the brink of  winning silverware but ultimately, falling short each time.

Alli was linked with the Spurs exit in January following a falling out with the now departed Jose Mourinho, and will be persuaded to stay to keep the band together.

Lloris, like Alli, has been linked with a reunion with Mauricio Pochettino at PSG given the Frenchman has entered the final year of his current Spurs deal.

While Spurs have a strong core of players to build on following the arrivals of Giovani lo Celso, Sergio Reguilon and Tanguy Ndombele in recent years, Spurs’ next manager will have the almighty task of keeping this current crop of player competitive without Kane leading the line.

What would selling Kane mean for Daniel Levy?

Let’s be clear: Levy will do what he thinks is best for Tottenham’s interests and making sure the club stays competitive for years to come.

The chairman does not have to sell Kane for sentimental reasons just because the player wants to leave. Levy will only sell Kane if certain requirements are met.

One of these requirements is matching the club’s value. Levy is a fierce negotiator and given they do not want to sell, he will look to secure the full £150m.

Sources claim Spurs will steadfastly refuse to sell Kane to a Premier League rival.

So should the likes of PSG or Real Madrid – two of the clubs who could realistically afford him – make a suitable offer, then Levy may be forced to reluctantly sell.

However, history dictates that reinvesting that money into the squad is a disaster waiting to happen.

When Tottenham sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a then world-record fee of £86m, Spurs ploughed that money back into the team by bringing in seven new players.

They brought in Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Paulinho, Nacer Chadli and Christian Eriksen.

Arguably, only Eriksen and Lamela are viewed as successful purchases while the others were complete duds.

Should Levy cash in on Kane and reinvest, he would need to do a much better job of recruiting and needs to bring in a new striker, centre back, right back and goalkeeper to fix problem areas in the current squad.

Also, selling Kane would be viewed as blasphemous among the club’s supporters and the Spurs chairman is already on thin ice following the club’s involvement in the now defunct European Super League.

However, there is an argument that selling your talisman can actually help further your club. Philippe Coutinho is a prime example of this. Liverpool sold the Brazilian to Barcelona for big-money and managed to recruit Virgil van Dijk from that sale and the rest in history. 

But with that being said, Levy has a lot more to lose than he does to gain as it stands.

But what about their search for new manager? What impact would Kane’s departure have?

Tottenham are yet to secure a new long-term manager following the sacking of Mourinho last month.

The club have drawn up a shortlist of potential candidates but have already been knocked back by the likes of Julian Nagelsmann, Brendan Rodgers and Ajax’s Erik ten Hag.

So it’s not looking at all promising for the north London club to have been rejected by a number of their top targets even before Monday’s news that Kane wants to leave.

Surely any incoming manager would be desperate to have Kane at the club and leading the line for them. But with him gone, enticing the best minds in world football may become even trickier.

While the club have a shiny brand new stadium and are viewed as one of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’, a future without Kane would suggest a painful rebuild that could take years to bear fruits is on the cards. 

Pochettino alluded to this before he was sacked by Spurs in November 2019 and the prospect of starting a new project all over again would not be enticing for the likes of Massimiliano Allegri and Antonio Conte – two managers Spurs have been linked with.

Graham Potter is viewed as one potential candidate for rebuilding the club, given what he has achieved at Brighton.

However, one of the main issues Potter has struggled with on the south coast is that he has no viable goalscorer. Without Kane, Potter would likely face similar issues in north London.

Should Kane stay, then Levy will need his new manager to build the team around the England captain and do everything in his power to finally end the club’s 13-year trophy drought. 

But should he sell, he’ll need to promise a war chest for the club’s ‘painful rebuild’ Pochettino predicted two years ago.

Would this mean missing out on European football as a result?

Well one thing is for sure should Kane leave is that they’ll be losing out on 20 to 40 guaranteed goal contributions a season.

Spurs look lifeless when Kane isn’t on the pitch, with the centre forward being the main focal point for everything that is good with the club.

Since Eriksen’s departure last summer, Kane has become this goalscorer-playmaker hybrid of a player, taking up two roles on the pitch. 

He has 32 goals and 16 assists in all competitions this season and is joint-top of the Premier League Golden Boot race with Mohamed Salah, who both have 22 goals this season.

Son is the only player that comes near to these totals, with the South Korean scoring 22 goals and providing 17 assists from 52 games this season.

Most of those goals and assists from Son were with Kane so it doesn’t make good reading should the 27-year-old depart this summer.

It is fair to say those two have single-handedly dragged Spurs up the table, not just this season, but in recent years, too.

Spurs have not finished outside of the top six in 13 years but could do so this season should they fail to win their last two games against Aston Villa and Leicester.

If Kane leaves this summer to see if the grass really is greener, then Spurs may have to kiss goodbye to European football for the foreseeable. 

While a lot hinges on Kane’s future, Spurs need to show ambition whether he stays or goes, otherwise they will slide into mediocrity and will once again only have themselves to blame.