Mauricio Pochettino Shares Harry Kane Concern Amid Real Madrid Transfer Rumours

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has admitted it would be difficult for the club to keep Harry Kane if he desires a move away. 

Following Philippe Coutinho's £142 million switch from Liverpool to Barcelona, the Spurs boss was quizzed on how testing it can be to keep stars around if serious interest arrives from one of European football's biggest clubs.

While he insisted Kane may spend his career at Tottenham, the manager said it's important not to take the England international for granted.

"Harry is so special," Pochettino said, per Matt Law of the Daily Telegraph. "Because he loves Tottenham, and he has always been at Tottenham. But we need to be clever how we manage him. The player needs to choose to stay here, you cannot force the player to stay here."

The Tottenham boss also commented on Coutinho, insisting there aren't many clubs that can guarantee keeping their best players.

"… That is [the situation] today with Coutinho, who I think Liverpool wanted to keep but was difficult to keep," he said. "And look what happened with Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United and [Zinedine] Zidane at Juventus, [Luis] Figo in Barcelona. It is a lot of examples that it is so, so tough to keep your best player if the player says he wants to leave."

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Kane has been linked with a move to Real Madrid recently, with Jose Felix Diaz of Marca reporting the Spurs forward is on a shortlist of four strikers to replace Karim Benzema in the summer.

The Tottenham No. 10 has blossomed into one of the best strikers in world football in recent seasons, and after winning the 2016-17 Golden Boot, he leads the Premier League goalscoring charts for the current season, too.

As noted by the UEFA Champions League Twitter account, Kane is averaging just under one goal a game:

Although Madrid may be casting admiring glances at the 24-year-old, there is no indication the player wants to move on.

Kane has an affinity with the Spurs fanbase, having come through the club's youth setup and earned his place in the first team. To have "one of their own," as the Tottenham supporters sing, leading the line with such potency will be a joy for the fans.

However, as we can see below, according to a recent newspaper poll, the Madridistas want to see Kane arrive at the Santiago Bernabeu:

The sales of Gareth Bale and Luka Modric to Madrid in recent years show Spurs are a club that will cash in on their prized assets for the right amount. Kane, you sense, would cost an extraordinary sum to prise away given his age, talent and association with the north London outfit.

Madrid have the capital to do so, and given Barcelona have spent enormous money on Ousmane Dembele and Coutinho, perhaps Real will be keen to make a splash in the transfer market in the summer themselves. As such, speculation over a possible move for Kane appears poised to intensify as the season rolls on.