contr“ It was incredible to see the reception from the Spurs fans on Sunday and to read some of the messages of support I’ve had in the last few weeks .”

“ I will be staying at Tottenham this summer and will be 100 per cent focused on helping the team achieve success .”

The above was tweeted by England captain Harry Kane this week, and the player will hope that his comments will draw a line in the sand over his Tottenham Hotspur future – for this season anyway. The striker had been linked to a move to Manchester City throughout the UK summer. And it had threatened to get ugly at one point when the striker – reportedly – did not return to preseason training with the rest of the squad. But the transfer talk seems to have gone cold, and Kane, who made his first appearance of the season as a substitute against Wolves last Sunday, will be focusing on repairing relations with the Spurs faithful.

But will they forgive and forget? Perhaps if Kane was unwavering in his commitment to the club. However, in his tweet above, you get the impression that the fans will be zeroing in on two words, “this summer”. That seems to suggest that there are no long-term guarantees with Kane’s future at Tottenham, and the player might be working behind the scenes with the blessing of Spurs’ chairman Daniel Levy to facilitate a transfer next summer. Any fee for Kane is expected to smash the British transfer record of £100 million, which was paid for Jack Grealish by Manchester City before the new season kicked off.

Kane won Golden Boot last season

There is a chance that this also takes a toll on Kane’s performances. While England exceeded expectations by reach the Euro 2020 Final in July, the captain’s performances were notably off during the tournament, with some pundits wondering whether the transfer saga had turned his head. Preseason, the online sports betting site 888 Sport had installed Kane as the 4/1 favourite for the Golden Boot. But that has now been extended to 6/1.

Still, there is precedence for star players repairing relations with fans after trying to engineer a move away from a club. Few Liverpool players are held in higher regard than Steven Gerrard, for example. But the current Rangers manager handed in a transfer request to the club in July 2005. The fans were furious in the red half of the city of Liverpool, even burning jerseys bearing the then captain’s name. But Gerrard had a change of heart, and it wasn’t long before the Kop was singing his name again.

But the key to Gerrard’s U-turn and the repairing of relations was that the player was contrite and humble. That’s not to say Kane lacks these qualities, but it’s not as if he has gone out of his way to commit his long-term future to Tottenham. His short-term future might be resolved, but fans will look for more commitment than that should the player want to hear his name being chanted around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this season.