Ange Postecoglou knew from his first meeting with Harry Kane that he was likely to leave Tottenham, and insists the club has been planning for his departure all summer.
Postecoglou confirmed that a deal for Kane to join Bayern from Spurs is “imminent”, with the England captain travelling to Germany on Friday to complete a medical and sign a four-year contract after the clubs agreed a deal understood to be worth a minimum of around £100million.
Postecoglou started work at Spurs at the beginning of July, with Kane reporting back for pre-season 11 days later.
“I had a conversation with Harry the first day he arrived and he was up front and honest, and I was the same,” the Australian said ahead of his first Premier League game in charge, at Brentford on Sunday. “You get an indication there that he kind of made up his mind: that if the clubs agreed he would go, particularly if it was before the first game. That was my preference as well.
“There's nothing along the way that's sort of made me feel there's anything other than this outcome. None of these things happen in isolation, everyone is pretty clued into to what's going on, so from my perspective I hadn't received anything from Harry, the club or anyone else to suggest to me anything had changed about his stance.
“I didn’t see the point [in trying to convince him to stay]. Whatever I was going to say was going to be irrelevant to what he felt. I could give this grand vision, but I’m sure he’s heard it all before.
“In my mind, after that initial conversation, it seemed like Harry had made up his mind that, if the clubs could agree, he was going to go.
“If not, he was happy to stay. It’s not like he was forcing it on me. He was very professional about it and I tried to treat him with the respect that someone of his standing deserved.”
Spurs have signed James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario, Manor Solomon, Micky van de Ven and Alejo Veliz so far this summer, and they are continuing to work on outgoings.
“We've been planning for this, fair to say, for a while,” Postecoglou continued. “It doesn't take too much investigative work to realise that this was going to happen, so we've been sorting of planning for it to happen anyway. A lot of our business up to now is with that in mind.
“This doesn't change things dramatically, from my perspective anyway, in terms of what we're trying to build.
“Our whole strategy has been around the fact Harry wasn't going to be around more than likely so it is not like we've had a pow-wow this morning [like], ‘Jeez, what do we do?’."
In Kane's absence, Brazil No9 Richarlison is expected to lead the line in west London this weekend, with support from Heung-min Son and Dejan Kulusevski.
“I wouldn't be expecting one player, and it's not the way we'll be set up, to cover the absence of Harry," Postecoglou said.
“It's about the collective and how we can become a really strong offensive force with the players we have. We have some really fantastic attacking players and Richy is one of them.”
Kane's impending departure has cast a cloud over the club on the eve of the new season, leaving many supporters mourning the loss of perhaps Spurs's greatest-ever player.
Postecoglou said it was down to his team to give fans something to get behind this season and is confident of a positive start this weekend.
“I've said all along they've got the right to feel the way they want to,” he said. “If there's a negativity amongst them, it's up to us to turn it around. It's not up to them.
“They'll always have this faith in their football club but in terms of us, the people who represent it, it's up to us to prove to them there's something to get behind there. Sunday is an opportunity for us to begin to do that and hopefully that positivity transfers to our next home game because the energy they provide the players will be enormous for us.”
Postecoglou added that Kane, who is Spurs' all-time top scorer with 280 goals, would always be a legend at the club.
“I am only new in the building and I am certainly not a spokesperson for this football club in the sense of proclaiming people's status but it is fairly evident Harry Kane will always be one of the greats of this football club,” he said.
With club captain Hugo Lloris not in Postecoglou's plans and Kane having worn the armband in pre-season, Postecoglou revealed he would inform the group of his pick for the new skipper on Saturday.
