TIM SHERWOOD has claimed that he stopped Tottenham from selling Harry Kane to Leicester City.
Kane has become the club's record goalscorer, having bagged 271 goals for the North London side since cementing his place in the team.
But before he became a legend at Spurs, Kane struggled with loan spells with Norwich City, Millwall, Leyton Orient and the Foxes.
That was until the closing stages of the 2013/14 season, when former manager Sherwood handed him his first start in the Premier League for Spurs.
He told talkSPORT: "Daniel (Levy) asked me what the team was (for Sunderland).
"So I wasted my time telling him what the back four and the midfield was and as soon as I get to Harry, he was asking me 'why certain more experienced players are not playing in front of Harry.
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"I said because he has earned the right to play."
Sherwood picked the now-England star ahead of the likes of Roberto Soldado, Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor.
He added: "It was just a case of the boy had earned the right and I always judged everyone on a level playing field, and if I feel like they are producing in training, then they deserve the opportunity and Harry certainly did that.
"So it was a tough conversation because when Daniel looked at me and he trusted my judgement on players."
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But the club had received an offer to buy Kane from Leicester City, and there was a consideration to accept the deal until Sherwood intervened.
He said: "But he (Levy) was possibly being told by someone else this player possibly was not good enough for the Premier League.
"And at the time, Tottenham wanted to buy players not only for the Premier League but for the Champions League.
"So it was obviously Franco Baldini getting into his ear and that he wasn't good enough and they had a bid lined up from Leicester to sell him for £600,000.
"I resisted it, obviously. There was no way he was going to go for that. in my opinion, he would have eaten £600,000 worth of food since he's been ten years of age at the club.
"So it was absolute nonsense to let him go for that.
"I don't know if Daniel was prepared (to accept the deal), but he put it to me with Franco Baldini sitting there, that it was on the table.
"And in the end, Daniel had to take the trust of someone and the trust came from Harry getting into the team the next day and subsequently scoring three in three games.
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"And I think he realised that either the price tag has got to go up or this boy might be good enough for Tottenham's first team."
Kane netted on his debut in Spurs' 5-1 win over Sunderland before also scoring against West Brom and Fulham.
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