Bayern alarms the Premier

On Saturday June 16, the day after agreeing to transfer Lewandowski to Barcelona for 60 million euros, 10 more than they had anticipated, the Bayern directors contacted Daniel Levy, general manager of Tottenham, to increase from 90 to 100 the offer they had made for Harry Kane the week before.

According to agents involved in a highly discreet exchange, Levy made the statue.

He didn't flinch.

But what seemed like an impossible wish for Julian Nagelsmann, the Bavarian coach, began to take the form of negotiations in the offices of the club with the most fans in London.

Behind closed doors, Levy summoned his advisers to study the possible sale.

When the news reached the ears of the boards of directors of Chelsea, Liverpool and City, the alarms thundered.

The highway that the English clubs build without pause towards hegemony in the Champions League in the next five years threatens to become a path flanked by cliffs due to the work of a summer market that Bayern is exploiting with unusual audacity.

In contrast to the conservatism that characterized the club, the new president, Oliver Kahn, who took office in 2021, shows an aggressiveness never exhibited by Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Their goal is to dominate the Champions League for the same reasons that have encouraged the owners of the Premier for years.

The first UEFA competition, with a distribution of more than 100 million among the semi-finalists,

"That's just a dream for the future," Kahn replied on Sunday the 17th, when asked about Bayern's alleged interest in the Tottenham striker, who in addition to being captain of the England team happens to be the

most productive of the Premier.

Says, under condition of anonymity, the prospector of a London-based audit: "Measurement models that transcend

and examine the personality of the player and the quality of his decisions, indicate that Kane is the footballer in the front of the attack that has generated the most danger for five years;

in the same way that Mané has been in the last three seasons the player with the most guaranteed performance and imbalance in the second line of attack”.

It is no coincidence that Sadio Mané, who did not want to continue sharing a dressing room with Mo Salah, ended up at Bayern.

Nor is it by chance that Liverpool transferred him for just 32 million euros.

Jürgen Klopp and his board did everything possible to prevent the Senegalese from reinforcing a direct rival in England.

Bayern took advantage of the internal competition in the Premier to recruit Mané at a bargain price.

The German club's first big move in the summer market was unprecedented.

The English championship, whose income according to

will average 4,000 million euros per season in image rights until 2025 – the figure can triple the volume of the League – has not come off a footballer in the Mané hierarchy since Madrid signed to Christian in 2009.

After Cristiano, transfers declined.

When Gareth Bale, Luis Suárez and Eden Hazard moved from England to Spain they had not played a single Champions League final.

The hit was memorable.

But Kahn did not stop at Mané.

Bayern began pulling strings for Kane from the first week of July.

The weekend of 15-17 began by selling Lewandowski to Barça, continued with his offer of 100 million for Kane to Tottenham, and after Levy's silence, it culminated on Sunday with the signing of De Ligt.

Considered at 22 as the center with the most potential in the world, Matthijs de Ligt languished at Juventus and talked to Thomas Tuchel.

The Chelsea coach warned him that in his vision he and Frenkie de Jong would be the axis of the team, when Bayern got in the way.

On Sunday the 17th Kahn raised his bet: he went from offering Juventus 60 million fixed euros plus ten million in variables to 70 fixed plus ten in variables.

With the

of Barça.

Unlike Levy, Andrea Agnelli signed the sale immediately.

Conte, Levy's problem

Bayern did not stop.

Last week Kahn met with English businessmen who proposed that he skip Levy to open a negotiation path that would directly involve Joseph Lewis, the owner of Tottenham, domiciled in the Bahamas.

For now, the cost of services stalled talks in Munich.

Nor was Charlie Kane, the player's brother and agent, very optimistic about the outcome of the possible transfer when Bayern's envoys questioned him.

Charlie, who did not close any doors, had not imagined his brother playing in a country other than England or Spain.

Daniel Levy calculates that the time to make a transfer profitable is running out.

Kane's contract ends in 2024. Next summer Tottenham will lose strength to put a price if the scorer wants to leave.

According to the agents involved, Levy has a price and a problem.

His price is around 150 million euros.

The problem is that he cannot transfer it to Bayern until he has the approval of Antonio Conte, his coach, who identifies his project with Kane.

Conte has not been informed about the underground contacts between Levy and Bayern, but he suspects them and is furious.

At Tottenham they fear that if Levy does not handle the situation tactfully, the Italian will end up unilaterally terminating his contract.

He knows how to do it.

At 52 years old there is no coach with a more spectacular record of resignations.

In 2014 he left Juventus in the middle of the preseason;

in 2018 he stood up Roman Abramovich at Chelsea;

and in 2021 he left Inter without notice.

Conte was inflamed by Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann's statements in reference to Kane last week.

"He is a brilliant player," said the German;

“one of the very few

in the world who can also play

.

Signing him is a dream.

But he is very expensive.”

Conte wasn't as upset with his counterpart as he was with Levy.

His message last Saturday pointed to the executive: “One thing is for sure: I am a coach who does not talk about players from other teams.

I don't know why Nagelsmann talked about Harry.

The situation at Tottenham is very clear.

Harry is a very important part of the project and if I want something I tell my club, not the media."

Agents working for Bayern and Tottenham plan to recruit Cristiano Ronaldo and Firmino to offer them to Conte as replacements, if necessary.

Levy thinks it won't be enough.

The man has been avoiding Conte for days.

He did not even dare to greet him on the team plane last Saturday, lest a spark light the fuse and he is left without the coach who qualified him for the Champions League.

The Premier clubs cross their fingers: if Conte's wall gives way, the Champions League can become Bayern's preserve.

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