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Bayern Munich superstar striker Harry Kane is having the season of his life with 30 goals and even world class playmaking and defending, and he is about to be rewarded with a new contract that will permanently end the Tottenham Hotspur transfer speculation.

There are several things Tottenham fans are dreaming of, and most of them are outlandish given the club is only four points above the relegation zone. But the most selfish of those pipe dreams is a reunion with Kane, one of the two most talented players in the history of the club and one of the best all-around strikers to ever play this game - a point he has finally proven to the masses at one of Europe's truly elite clubs in Bayern.

As Kane chases Champions League and Ballon d'Or glory for the first time in his career, he has been the subject of transfer rumors owing to talk of special release clauses and a desire to return to the Premier League.

Harry Kane will soon sign a new Bayern Munich contract

Well, according to a new report from ace transfer reporter Fabrizio Romano, Bayern Munich are currently "insisting" on hammering out a new contract for Harry Kane in light of a season in which he has a real shot at breaking Robert Lewandowski's goals record in a single Bundesliga season while playing better all around football than either Lewandowski or Gerd Muller did in a Bayern shirt. Per Fab, Bayern would like Kane to stay as a centerpiece of the project.

The 32 year old marksman is currently under contract through the 2026/27 season, meaning if Bayern do not sign him to an extension, he would technically be free to leave on a pre agreed deal in the coming winter 2027 transfer window to Tottenham Hotspur or any other club.

Obviously, that isn't happening, and Bayern want to formalize that by signing him to a new deal. Kane is the heart of the best attacking quartet in world football with Luis Diaz, Michael Olise, and Jamal Musiala surrounding him - and then Lennart Karl and Serge Gnabry as two further options.

Tottenham have to figure out their own future without Kane, which begins with avoiding relegation and ends with finding players besides Mohammed Kudus who are capable of shining in the here and now as top Premier League players. The Kane ship probably already sailed, but, soon, it will be official from a Tottenham perspective.

Tottenham Hotspur spent a whopping 40 million euros on Conor Gallagher in the winter transfer window after Rodrigo Bentancur's injury, and even at the time, any sensible Spurs fan could cut through the media mismash about leadership, effort, and experience and see how the deal did not make much sense.

Because the first major problem with Gallagher was apparent from the beginning. Gallagher didn't bring to the table anything Spurs didn't already have - or have better. Though a serious injury to top box to box midfielder Lucas Bergvall should have, in theory, made Gallagher of value, the reality is that Spurs No. 1 need in midfield was playmaking and passing ball progression in the here and now to help star of the future Archie Gray out.

Nobody will mistake Gallagher for a technical playmaker, and that is actually precisely why Tottenham's rivals Chelsea got rid of him in the first place. Gallagher, predictably, has offered nothing of value to the Tottenham attack, nor has he offered anything unique. And as the last match against Fulham once again affirmed, Pape Matar Sarr is simply a better version of what Gallagher purports to bring.

Conor Gallagher does not offer anything new

And therein lies the second issue, which, subtly, some astute Tottenham fans already saw coming at the time of the deal. It is sincerely difficult to name a single attribute that Gallagher actually does bring to the table for Spurs.

So much was yammered about Gallagher's leadership, effort, and experience, and those three things are the harbinger of poor play and transfer overpay. If all the English punditry can wax poetic about a player are these three generic, nontangible traits that do not translate to actual performance, then you had better believe that they are propping up a good old favorite of theirs.

Gallagher is not winning the ball at a high rate. He is not progressing the ball at all. The supposed end product is nowhere near there. And there is obviously no creativity. The 26 year old Premier League veteran is getting overrun defensively, and while he is doing a nice job of drawing fouls and is averaging more key passes (one full key pass per game) than expected, he has been a big part of some terrible losses and isn't producing enough compared to the share of the ball he commands.

Much has been made of Cristian Romero's supposed indiscpline and lack of leadership as the new captain of Tottenham Hotspur, succeeding Son Heung-min, and while 99 percent of that is complete mainstream media drivel by an increasingly annoying Premier League punditry base, Romero hasn't exactly assuaged the 1 percent with some silly suspensions this season. But in his absence, fellow star center back Micky van de Ven has done little to convince about his own leadership merits, thus increasing Romero's value.

In a recent column for The Times, Tony Cascarino wrote a thought provoking piece about Van de Ven, calling him out for struggling at a time when Tottenham are fighting relegation and need their other fiery central defender to step up. Cascarino took Van de Ven's struggles to their logical conclusion and surmised that VDV's inability to be a leader won't bode well for his desire to pursue a dream move to an even bigger club.

Everything penned in that piece is accurate. Van de Ven is a supremely gifted footballer and one of the fastest center backs on this planet, capable of scoring goals that most defenders could only dream of, including his Puskas worthy solo run at the beginning of the season.

Micky van de Ven is not a leader yet

But Van de Ven has also been as disastrous as any Tottenham player in the biggest games this season, with his work in the absence of Romero only confirmed that he remains a step below the Argentinian World Cup and Copa America hero - the reigning Europa League MVP.

Van de Ven wants to move to Real Madrid. The tea leaves are too obvious not to read, and Van de Ven isn't exactly going out of his way to deny the transfer rumors that float through the English papers. But when you watch how he treats the fans or recall how he openly snubbed Thomas Frank and then you see the ego problems in Madrid that persist, it's hard to think of Van de Ven as the kind of stable center back the elite clubs will want.

The Dutchman needs to mature, and while nobody wants to admit that their star player isn't stepping it up and even fewer want to criticize a young player in this way, Van de Ven has soured Tottenham fans. His disrespect towards the Spurs faithful in the stadium is emblematic of a cultural problem within the players in the squad, such as goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, and as the losses pile up, more questions will be asked of these so-called leaders.

Now the good news for Spurs is that Van de Ven's immaturity will likely keep him at the club for longer. Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona, and all the others will have other, better options like Nico Schlotterbeck, which gives Van de Ven more time to season and stew on what it means to be a leader who takes charge.

It is still going to be a matter of months, if at all this season, that James Maddison makes his triumphant return to the Tottenham Hotspur lineup, and as the losses continue to pile up and the service for the strikers continues to sag, the former Leiceser City star is only being missed more and more.

Tottenham did spend big on a new No. 10 this past summer transfer window, but as time passes, Xavi Simons is only showing that he belongs more as an attacking No. 8 rather than a true creative 10. His average of 1.3 key passes per game would be strong for an 8 but is below par for a top Premier League team in the 10 position.

Simons has recorded multiple key passes in a game just once in his last four Premier League outings, as his performances and Spurs as a whole have slipped again lately, undoing a brief period of time in which it looked like the Dutchman was finally clicking.

Xavi Simons isn't a creative force yet

Meanwhile, Maddison was an extraordinary creator for Tottenham. Compared to Simons's four assists in the Premier League this season, Maddison had seven and nine in his first two seasons with Spurs, averaging an outstanding 2.4 key passes per game in the 2023/24 campaign back when Spurs were last good.

Now, Maddison is not far and away the better player to Simons and actually only averaged the same number of key passes per game (1.3) last season as Simons is this season. But Maddison was also dragged down on a per game basis by not actually starting every game, which artificially deflates the average.

Anyone watching Simons and Maddison can tell that the latter is more creative and refined technically with his passing in the final third. Simons will imrpove in that regard with age and experience, but if anything, this season has reminded Tottenham supporters about the learning curve in the Premier League, especially when it comes to reading and understanding the game.

Although there is no love lost among the Tottenham Hotspur faithful for former CEO Daniel Levy, who was deposed shortly after the summer 2025 transfer window, the reality is that Spurs are even worse off without him. Case in point: At least Levy had the foresight to prepare the club in case of relegation, whereas his successor couldn't even plan for Thomas Frank failing.

According to a report from the best Premier League transfer insider there is, David Ornstein, Levy had already planned for the possibility of Tottenham suffering relegation. In each of the contracts at Spurs, there is a clause stipulating a salary decrease of about 50 percent in the vast majority of cases if Spurs were to be relegated. Ornstein reports that Levy made sure to include a relegation clause of some sort in each Tottenham contract as a financial safeguard against relegation.

On the one hand, it isn't exactly reassuring that Levy predicted all along that Tottenham would be at risk of relegation. On the other hand, it is far better to be prepared than to be caught offguard, and considering Tottenham finished 17th in the Premier League last season, it was a good thing Levy came prepared. Surely, Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham, left to their own devices, would have just let Tottenham crumble into worse financial peril.

Daniel Levy has relegation clauses in Tottenham contracts

And although Ange Postecoglou's few truthers like to say that Tottenham only finished 17th because they did not care about the league anyway, Spurs were woeful under Big Ange in the league and ranked 17th because they were truly that terrible. As anyone can plainly see this season, that fact has been proven.

Tottenham still have plenty of time left to save themselves under Igor Tudor, though if their latest horrendous losses to local rivals Arsenal and Fulham are anything to go off of, Spurs can count their blessings that they are still four points above West Ham United in the relegation battle.

Spurs are in a dark period of their history right now, even after winning the Europa League last season, and things could get grim. Levy was an albatross on the club and a big reason why Tottenham are in the position they are in today - it's not all on Vinai and Lange, after all, the rot has seeped for years - but, again, at least he wasn't foolish enough to walk into a season unprepared with no contingency plan for the worst case.

With Djed Spence a late scratch from the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham on Sunday, that was the perfect opportunity for Igor Tudor to right an obvious wrong from the 4-1 blowout loss to Arsenal and start young left back Souza.

Instead, the Spurs interim manager overthought things and pulled an Ange Postecoglou, though instead of starting young Archie Gray out of position at center back, Tudor chose to make Gray the starting left back against Fulham with predictably negative results.

Gray ended the night with an assist after Souza finally did come on in the second half to deliver another pretty tidy left back performance for Tottenham, and his English prospect counterpart thus improved in a role more suited to his style.

Souza needs to be in the starting lineup

But Souza is the real point of conversation here, and it is worth remembering that the Palmeiras prospect was actually the first signing of the winter transfer window. He was overshadowed by first the price tag of Conor Gallagher and now the poor performances of the big name transfer signing flopping - the only experienced addition of the window, in the end.

However, Souza is already showing that he can be a big success at Tottenham. When the 19 year old came off the bench against Fulham, he delivered a very positive performance alongside Mathys Tel and Richarlison, and the trio are now going to be quite important to Spurs making a charge to ensure safety by the end of the season.

Tottenham have to start Souza at left back when the time calls for it, and there is a real argument to be made that even when Djed Spence, who himself is not a natural left back, is available, Souza should still be the call. Destiny Udogie is the best man at left back, obviously, but his latest injury is a reminder of why Souza was signed in the first place; the Italian star cannot be counted on every week for health reasons.

Look, Igor Tudor definitely is not as good of a manager - not even a quarter as good - but, in a way, he is becoming to Tottenham Hotspur what Ralf Rangnick was for Manchester United. He is an interim manager with no allegiance to the club, no agenda, and the guts to tell Spurs that their excrement is indeed highly offensive.

Tottenham stinks. Anyone who dares disagree with this statement is clearly not living in this dimension or anything resembling reality, because Spurs now have not won a game in their last 10, earning a meager four points in ten matches in the Premier League. They are still just four points above the drop zone, treading water and now coming off two more embarrassing losses to London rivals Arsenal and Fulham.

Tudor clearly is not the answer beyond this season, and you can forgive any Tottenham supporter who even thinks he is not the answer in this season either. Spurs look no better under Tudor than they did under Thomas Frank before him.

Igor Tudor tells the truth about Tottenham

But there is one key, legitimately refreshing difference between the interim manager and the summer bust. Tudor is at least willing to tell everyone that Tottenham are terrible, are in a dark period currently, and need a lot better from their players while hinting that the grave problems at the club extend beyond the pitch.

Whereas Frank was willing to sit there and tell everyone that Tottenham were playing well when they were not or would even somehow argue that Spurs deserved wins in games they were clearly out played. Frank was the one who was delusional and in a different reality, excusing the inexcusable and lowering the standard at a club that already slumped to 17th in the Premier League last season.

Tudor has nowhere near the tactical acumen, scouting eye, or overall talent and charisma of Rangnick, who was doomed to fail by an arrogant Manchester United that needed a literal change in ownership and Michael Carrick to be saved. But like Rangnick, he has no interest in sucking up to a room full of incompetents, and he would rather tell the truth every fan can see plainly in front of them: Tottenham are a mismanaged mess and produce some of the worst football in Europe's top five leagues.

Tottenham Hotspur's wait for a first Premier League victory of 2026 goes on. At the weekend, in Igor Tudor's second match in charge, Spurs were beaten again, this time defeated 2-1 by Fulham at Craven Cottage. The Lilywhites have therefore picked up just four points from ten league outings this year, equalling the club's longest-ever Premier League winless run, also ten matches under Ossie Ardiles in March 1994.

Back then, Spurs finished 15th, and they would snap your hand off for a repeat of that this year. 32 years ago, that winless sequence came to an end thanks to a 1-0 victory over Everton; Steve Sedgley the only scorer at Goodison. Well, if Tudor's new team are beaten again this mid-week, the club's 48 year stay in the top division really could be about to come to an end.

Tottenham's crucial sequence of fixtures

Next up, Spurs will welcome Crystal Palace to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday. Having played 28 Premier League matches and picked up only 29 points to date, every match is must win, still sat just four points clear of the relegation zone.

However, if Tudor's new team repeat what Ange Postecoglou's men achieved in the corresponding fixtures last season, they really could be doomed.

Tottenham's remaining PL fixtures & result from last season

Excluding the two games against newly-promoted clubs, Tottenham lost the corresponding fixture last season from each of their next seven Premier League outings. Across these matches, Postecoglou's side scored just five goals and conceded 20.

The only fixture Spurs did win last season was Everton at home, but that doesn't come around until the final day, so who knows what mess they'll be in by then. One could say, Spurs were even worse last year and were purely focussing on the Europa League. On the contrary, at this stage of the previous campaign, 28 matches in, Postecoglou's team had 34 points on the board, which is five more than they have now. So, despite finishing 17th, and currently being one place higher, Tottenham have somehow managed to regress.

Just looking at the three matches between now and the March international break, the visit to Anfield feels like a complete write off. Meanwhile, the home games against fellow strugglers Palace and Forest appear winnable, and a victory in both would more or less secure safety. However, were Spurs to fail to win both, they would be still very much be in trouble as we hit the run in.

Tudor has made no immediate impact since his appointment, and Thursday's clash is one of the biggest matches the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has ever hosted, but not in a way any supporter could ever have envisaged. Tudor's team simply must start fast against Palace to have the fans on their side and prevent the atmosphere from turning toxic.

Even if you appreciate a player and know how talented they are, everyone needs to be held to account at critical junctures in the season when everything is falling apart. On that note, Xavi Simons needs to be stepping it up for Tottenham Hotspur, because he has been just as much a part of the problem as anyone else.

When Simons was snubbed by Thomas Frank in the games against Arsenal and Fulham earlier this season that Spurs struggled in, the former Brentford coach was roundly criticized for taking his biggest talent out of the equation. And then when Simons came back into the lineup, he dazzled, playing better than he did before.

Well, after a positive spell of form, Simons is back to being Mr. Anonymous. Eberechi Eze ran circles around him as Arsenal won the North London Derby even with Simons involved, trouncing Spurs by the same 4-1 score line.

Xavi Simons was a passenger for Tottenham vs. Fulham

Then on Sunday against Fulham, Simons lasted a meager 57 minutes, as Tottenham had no choice but to sub him after he created just one chance and offered no real ball progression, defensive quality, or composure on the wings or in the midfield. Simons actually started on the left wing again, as Igor Tudor frustratingly made the same foolish tactical blunder that Frank consistently did by isolating Simons out wide.

Yet even with the caveat that Simons was being played out of position against Fulham, with the season on the line and relegation a real threat, you still expect much more from a 60 million pound signing who was one of the best players in two leagues as a youngster, the Bundesliga and the Dutch Eredivisie.

Against Fulham, there was no creativity, urgency, or quality in Simons's game. He was a passenger with the season on the line, and that just cannot happen when you are a team's star player and main influence in the game. With Mohammed Kudus injured, Simons is even more important, and it is all the more vital that he step up.

Going forward, Tudor has to make it clear that more is expected of him. While Tudor has to do better at putting the Dutchman in a position to succeed, when you look at the fact that Simons did not complete one dribble or draw one foul against an otherwise average Fulham side, a lot of the blame has to go directly to the winger, too. He had opportunities to do something; he just did not want to be the one to force the issue, which is a real problem.

Tottenham Hotspur center midfielder Archie Gray should be one of the biggest talents in England right now, but he's being actively held back by subpar coaches who keep on playing him in weird positions that aren't midfield.

Count Igor Tudor in as the latest in the line of Ange Postecoglou and even Thomas Frank to mistake the fact that just because a young player can play anywhere in a pinch, it doesn't mean you should force them to, especially when you have other options.

Case in point. Tudor saw that Djed Spence had picked up another minor injury - to this calf, this time - just before the big game against Fulham. Instead of calling upon the young and talented Souza to start at left back, Tudor decide to shoe horn Archie Gray on the left side of the defense.

Archie Gray is clearly no left back

The result was unsurprisingly disastrous for Spurs, who were losing 2-0 at the time Gray was finally hooked off for Souza, who came right in and showed why he should have been starting at left back the whole time anyway.

Gray did nothing all game at left back, as he was overrun defensively and contributed nothing going forward in that position. It was only until later in the game that he got an assist playing in a right wing position (another issue), but the damage had already been done in the 2-1 defeat to the local rivals.

Nobody blames Gray for playing poorly at left back, as Tottenham fans are a sensible bunch. No, the ire is entirely directed at Tudor for such a silly, basic error that no Premier League manager should be making. In no universe is Gray a left back, and when every game means so much in the relegation fight, an easily winnable match against a mid table team like Fulham is not one where you should be experimenting with playing a young, promising prospect out of position.