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With a month to go until the transfer window closes, Harry Kane remains a Tottenham player. That is a state of affairs, however, that seems unlikely to last through to September as Bayern Munich circle. 

Monday's face-to-face talks did not bring with them the resolution that Kane might have been hoping but it increasingly appears to be a matter of when rather than if the England international makes the move to Bavaria. The gap in valuations between the two clubs remains a significant one, around £20 million dependent on the terms and structure of the deal, but the fact that there is a gap might be the most telling point to emerge from negotiations. Spurs' valuation of Kane is not, as it has been in the past, priceless. With less than a year to run on his contract, there is a deal to be struck.

It has been more than three weeks since the suggestion first emerged that Tottenham would be prepared to offer Kane £400,000-a-week if it would convince him to stay. There has been no indication since that the 30-year-old could be tempted by one of the most generous pay packets this side of Riyadh. Where two years ago it was the England captain who seemed plum out of options by this stage of the summer, now it might just be Tottenham.

That goes some way to explaining the tetchy responses of head coach Ange Postecoglu, who has described himself as "not relaxed" about negotiations stretching off into the business end of his tenure, which begins on August 12 against Brentford, a team who very nearly finished above Tottenham last season. It has been suggested that Kane will stick around if a deal hasn't been struck by the opening weekend of the season but even that feels like something of a power play. The vice-captain is effectively giving his employers 11 days to get something for him or watch him run down his contract to the stage where he can sign a pre-contract agreement with Bayern Munich in January, helping himself to a chunk of the €80 million that the Bundesliga champions are prepared to offer Spurs.

It is an altogether shrewder act of maneuvering than two years ago, where Kane half-heartedly attempted to foist a transfer to Manchester City on Daniel Levy, his pleas of a gentleman's agreement falling on the deaf ears of an owner who could simply point to a contract that did not expire until 2024. The man Spurs fans salute as "one of their own" couldn't quite bring himself to torch his standing on White Hart Lane, now he does not need to. He finally has the leverage he did not for most of his prime years.

Meanwhile none of the scenarios available to Levy look all that favorable. In a market where Rasmus Hojlund, the 20-year-old scorer of nine Serie A goals in 1834 minutes, goes for €72 million, signing a replacement for Kane would eat up the overwhelming majority, perhaps all, of the money that would come into Tottenham's coffers. For that sort of sum, they might acquire a player like Dusan Vlahovic, Randal Kolo Muani or Jonathan David (who they are understood to have on their list of options). All are talented but none of them would arrive in the Premier League a likely 20-goal-a-season striker.

The other option would be to entrust club-record signing Richarlison as the new center forward but the 26-year-old has not looked the same player since he did a double shift of Olympics and Copa America for Brazil in 2021. In his last three seasons, he has 14 non-penalty goals in the Premier League, a mark Kane has bettered in seven of his nine years as a regular starter. 

On the plus side, new recruit James Maddison at least means that Spurs' next center forward won't need to be a number nine and a number 10 in one package. Aside from the former Leicester man, the club have added Manor Solomon, who briefly hit a hot streak with Fulham last season and Hugo Lloris replacement Guglielmo Vicario, untested in the Premier League and at best their second choice behind Brentford's David Raya. The multiple center backs that are so desperately needed have not arrived. Even if Postecoglu can turn Tottenham into a happy camp again with their star striker in tow, it is a stretch to see the upper limits of this team being much more than scrapping for a top-four finish. 

Such a situation is precisely what Kane has shown himself to be so unhappy with over the past two years. This time, however, a way out looks a more realistic prospect than ever before.