Harry Kane warned against Tottenham return: 'It's a downgrade' from Bayern

Martin Macdonald

16 Oct 2025 05:01 CDT
3 min read

Harry Kane has been warned against a return to former club Tottenham.

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After years of individual success at Tottenham in terms of goals, Kane left the club in the summer of 2023 to try and win a trophy for the first time in his career.

Bayern Munich paid €100m (£86.75m) for the player's services and he has repaid that fee with an astonishing amount of goals.

This season he officially became the fastest player to score 100 goals for a club in a top-five league, achieving the feat in 104 games to beat the previous record held by Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland.

He won his first trophy last season as Bayern claimed the Bundesliga.

Even though he has enjoyed success with the German giants, he has a clause in his contract that could allow him to return to the Premier League in 2026.

But, pundit Danny Murphy has questioned why the England star would wan't to return to a club like Tottenham who aren't competing for the Premier League or Champions League.

When asked by GOAL if the chances of Kane returning are 50/50, he responded:

“I would think much less. Harry Kane is succeeding where he is at the moment - more than succeeding, he’s flying and scoring a lot of goals. He’s in a team where he thinks he can compete for the Champions League. He’s won his first league title, first trophy.

“There is always the family factor. We can never know about how that is. I remember Michael Owen being in Spain and a year in just wanting to come home with the family. We don’t know that side of Kane’s life. But from a football perspective, to go back to Tottenham, there is only one reason he would go back there and that’s because of the fact that the fans love him. In terms of football reasons, it would be to try and break Alan Shearer’s record.

“The way he is playing, if he wanted to leave Munich, I think he would have other options where he could go to another club and compete for the biggest honours on the planet - domestic titles and the Champions League. It sounds romantic going back to Tottenham but the reality is that while they are improving - and I’m a big fan of Thomas Frank - he’d be going there to win a League Cup or an FA Cup. It’s a downgrade. He would be downgrading. His level of performance at the moment, he doesn’t need to.”

Would clubs pay for Kane?

The release clause that needs to be triggered in 2026 is worth £57 million and Kane will be 33 in July, so Murphy wonders whether a Premier League club would sanction that money for a player in the twilight of his career.

“I’m a bit different with that - £57m for a 33-year-old is not something I would want my club doing," the former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder added.

"I think you know you’re not going to get anything back for that so it’s just ‘there’s 57’ and you are hoping that somebody at 33 is physically able to carry on at the level he has shown for another two or three years.

“You don’t want to play 57 million for a season. I think that’s a big risk. He hasn’t always played full seasons in the Premier League, with the intensity of it, he has had some injury problems. Although he doesn’t rely on pace and I’m sure he can play for a few more years, I’m not sure there will be too many clubs willing to pay £57 million at 33.”

Kane has started the 2025/26 in sensational form, with 18 goals scored in 10 appearances for Bayern across all competitions so far.

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