Mauricio Pochettino Suggests Alvaro Morata Rejected Spurs Move over Harry Kane

New Chelsea signing Alvaro Morata rejected a move to Tottenham Hotspur because he was afraid of the competition posed by White Hart Lane hero Harry Kane, according to Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Morata joined the Blues from Real Madrid in a club-record £70 million move on July 21, and Pochettino suggested he might have ended up in north London were it not for Kane's presence, per Metro's Chris Davie:

"Morata talked about me in the media and said: 'Mauricio called me.' That was from the beginning, two years ago or more.

"He said to me: 'Why do you want me if you have Harry Kane?'

"You know, if you go to try to sign a striker, they will say: 'Eh gaffer, you want me for what?

"'To be on the bench? Because it's Harry Kane, I cannot compete with Harry Kane or Hugo Lloris or different players.'"

Kane's looming figure recently followed Morata to Stamford Bridge, too, after Chelsea manager Antonio Conte opened up about his admiration for the Tottenham attacker, per Yahoo's Andrew Gaffney:

It's understandable that Morata will have been wary in his search for more regular first-team football, having largely been sidelined in his second stint at Real Madrid.

There's no guarantee he would have received that at Tottenham with England international Kane in situ, but Chelsea had a vacancy opening after Diego Costa was told by Conte that he could leave.

Morata, 24, got a taste of more regular starting minutes during his time at Juventus, but this summer's switch to west London looks like it will grant him his first real opportunity as a senior attacking figure.

Michy Batshuayi has looked like Chelsea's most impressive scorer in pre-season and netted three times in the space of two matches, but WhoScored.com's Ben McAleer believes Morata will be in the starting XI:

Few could blame the Spain international for not wanting to go up against Kane for Tottenham's sole striking berth, particularly after the Londoner won the Premier League Golden Boot for the second season running in 2016-17.

Kane followed up a prolific 2015-16 campaign, during which he netted 25 league goals, by scoring a new season-best with 29 league goals last term, making him just the fifth player to win the award in back-to-back campaigns.

That's not exactly the kind of figure one might attempt to dethrone when leaving a tough environment barren of playing guarantees such as at Real Madrid.

Morata and Kane will nevertheless be competing this season, only in a less direct way than they might have had if the former opted for a north London switch rather than move to Stamford Bridge.