Mauricio Pochettino fought valiantly to keep the Tottenham statement from coming out
Mauricio Pochettino's former number two Jesus Perez has revealed that Tottenham bosses tried to convince the management duo to release a statement that could have have set Harry Kane's career on a completely different path.
Tottenham were in the market for a new forward during the 2014 summer transfer window and had their sights firmly set on Manchester United wonderkid Danny Welbeck. However, the striker signed for north London rivals Arsenal instead in a £16million deal.
If Tottenham had signed Welbeck, Kane would have been shipped out. To save face and play down any talk that they had been pipped by their biggest rivals, Tottenham wanted Pochettino to release a statement saying that he did not want another attacker anyway because he was happy with a then-20-year-old Kane providing back-up for Roberto Soldado and Emmanual Adebayor.
Perez thinks that if Pochettino had gone ahead with the club's wishes, it could have unsettled his young star.
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"It was key in that moment the way Mauricio protected Harry," Perez said on the High Performance Podcast. "I remember a meeting that was tough with the club in terms of communication.
"It was public that Welbeck could come and join the team therefore Harry would like to go.
"But once Welbeck signed for Arsenal, the club suggested that Mauricio should do a statement saying 'I am happy with the three strikers'.
"Mauricio said 'that is not necessary for me to say. If I say that then I am giving the impression to Harry that I really wanted another one to come and not him'.
From day one I was very happy to Harry to stay with us and to take time to succeed. That statement never came out. It was super important to protect Harry and to give the feel of 'I really trust you'.
"It was not up to Mauricio to say that. There are those things in management that nobody sees but define the career of a player."
Perez was asked if Kane would have been under a lot more pressure if the statement had gone out, to which he replied: "Yeah, easy. It looks like the statement was to protect ourselves [and say] 'we are happy with these guys'.
"But why are you taking a statement? It is probably because you were after another one."
Pochettino added: "I was happy with those three. I didn't need to make statements because I'm not bothered what people think."