MANCHESTER, England: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is “very interested” in signing striker Harry Kane but he needs Tottenham to come to the negotiation table.
The England captain wants out of Tottenham and has indicated City is his preferred destination.
“Harry Kane is an exceptional, extraordinary striker, no doubts about that,” Guardiola said Friday. “Of course we are very interested in him but he’s a Tottenham player and if they don’t want to negotiate, nothing more to say. If they want to, we will try. That’s all.”
Kane plans to return to training with Tottenham on Saturday — eight days before City visits for the season opener. He said on Twitter that “it hurts” to read comments by fans questioning his professionalism.
“While I won’t go into the specifics of the situation, I want to clarify that I would never, and have never, refused to train,” he wrote Friday. “I will be returning to the club tomorrow, as planned.”
He’s under contract with the north London club until 2024 but has been open with his frustration about the direction of the team and lack of trophies. Tottenham’s seventh-place finish last season left it out of the Champions League.
“He’s a player for Tottenham Hotspur,” Guardiola said. “If Tottenham don’t want (to) negotiate, it’s finished. If they are open to negotiate, of course not (only) Man City, many clubs in the world would want to try to sign him, we are not an exception. But it depends on Tottenham.”
City broke the British transfer fee record on Thursday to sign midfielder Jack Grealish from Aston Villa. The Premier League champions paid a fee of 100 million pounds ($139 million).
Grealish’s contract had a release clause, unlike Kane’s, Guardiola noted.
It might take a new record to persuade Tottenham to sell Kane to a rival.
And Nuno Espirito Santo addressed the issue at his first press conference as Tottenham manager, saying last month: “Look, Harry is our player, period. No need to talk about anything else.”
Guardiola wants Harry Kane, prods Tottenham to negotiate
https://arab.news/42qzz
Guardiola wants Harry Kane, prods Tottenham to negotiate
- The England captain wants out of Tottenham and has indicated City is his preferred destination
- “Harry Kane is an exceptional, extraordinary striker, no doubts about that,” Guardiola said Friday
Aston Martin says its car risks giving drivers ‘nerve damage’ and can’t finish F1 season-opener
- Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage
MELBOURNE: Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage.
Adrian Newey, the F1 car design great who’s heading into his first race as Aston Martin’s team principal, said Thursday the team’s Honda power unit causes vibrations which could damage the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Neither will likely be able to tolerate even half of the 58-lap race distance, Newey added.
Aston Martin had a poor preseason, often slower even than new team Cadillac and it logged the fewest laps of all 11 teams.
“That vibration (transmitted from Honda’s power unit) into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” said Newey.
“Mirrors falling off the air, tail lights falling off, that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But, the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.
“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration — and to improve the vibration at source.”
Despite the long list of issues, Newey says the AMR26 car has tremendous potential as F1 starts a new era of regulations.
He argued the chassis is F1’s fifth-best behind the expected top-teams Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull and that, following an aggressive development program, has the potential to run at the front at some point in 2026.
Alonso, though, is keeping the faith until Friday practice in Melbourne, where he believes fixes on the car might provide a sunnier outlook.
“For us, it’s just vibrating everything,” the two-time F1 champion said.
“But it’s not only for us. The car is struggling a little bit, so that’s why we have some issues, some reliability problems that made our days slightly short.
“Since (pre-season testing in) Bahrain, there were a couple of tests done and some of the solutions are implemented on the car now, so (I’m) curious to see what (happens) tomorrow (and) if we can improve.”
Its disappointing performance has been variously attributed to a compressed design time due to late arrival; Honda’s need to rebuild its research and development capabilities after leaving Red Bull, the challenge of producing a new in-house gearbox, and the team running a so-far unproven fuels partner in Aramco.
But it’s the side effects that will likely sideline its cars early in Sunday’s race at Albert Park.
