There is a good chance that Ange Postcoglou was well aware of the situation surrounding Harry Kane when he agreed to swap Celtic for Spurs earlier this summer.
The England captain had been coveting a move away from North London for quite some time, although Daniel Levy had been reluctant to to sanction a deal. In saying that, the fact that he only had 12 months left on his contract meant that he had the leverage necessary to secure a departure during the current transfer window.
In the end, he would move to Bayern Munich for a fee worth up to €120million.
Whether this transfer was a good or bad thing for Ange Postecoglou can be debated. While having a player of Kane's quality would be a boost to any team, this could also allow the Australian to build the squad in his own image without dealing with constant speculation around the future of his star player.
Martin O'Neill had experience similar to Harry Kane one at Celtic
Martin O'Neill knows all too well the situtation Ange Postecoglou was faced with, having dealt with something similar himself after his arrival at Celtic back in 2000.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he recalled how star striker Mark Viduka was attempting to engineer a move away from the club in a similar manner to what we saw from Harry Kane in recent times. In the end, he felt Celtic were in a better position after his departure, something that could be repeated at Spurs in the seasons ahead.
Maybe Daniel Levy said to Ange immediately there was a fairly decent chance Harry Kane would leave...
Remarkably, I had a similar situation when I went to Celtic. Mark Viduka wanted to leave the club - nothing to do with me. He decided because he had an argument with the chief executive that he didn’t want to play for Celtic any more.
I tried, I must admit, over the phone because he was in Australia at the time, to get him to stay. But he said there was absolutely no chance so my thinking process was ‘I need a replacement’. And I got Chris Sutton who was fantastic...
Ange will bring a really decent brand of football that will be fine but you still have to win football games. Kane’s departure will help him initially because expectations will be lower.
The expectations will be lower because they have lost their talisman and they’ll be looking around to get some sort of replacement within the confines of the football club at the moment. I’m sure when Ange Postecoglou took the job there must have been some sort of thinking that Harry Kane would leave the football club.
It will be interesting to see if Ange Postecoglou ends up benefitting from the departure of Harry Kane in the seasons ahead.
The example Martin O'Neill gave of his experiences at Celtic show how such a sale can work for a club in the long-term.
SEE ALSO: Jamie Carragher Makes Big Evan Ferguson Claim After Latest Brighton Exploits
