Gareth Southgate insists Harry Kane’s potential move to Bayern Munich ‘doesn’t concern him’ but a move abroad is ‘good for player development’.
The England manager joined talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show to look ahead to Euro 2024 and assess the Three Lions’ form since he took over as manager in 2016.
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One player that has starred under Southgate during his England tenure is Tottenham striker Harry Kane.
The Three Lions captain has been linked with a transfer this summer with just one year remaining on his contract.
Bayern Munich have held discussions with Spurs but no agreement has been reached.
Southgate was asked about the future of his skipper, and whether he would prefer the striker to stay in the Premier League over moving to Germany with Bayern Munich this summer.
He said: “Actually, it doesn’t concern me because wherever he is he’s an outstanding player and he’ll have a good season and he’ll score a load of goals.
“So I think it’s more of a dilemma for the player, the club, what do they do financially?
“He’s at a certain point of his contract where can you afford not to take the money or can you afford to lose the player? That’s the difficult thing for the people running the football club and there are a few situations like that always in the transfer window, aren’t there?
“You want the best players playing in the league if you possibly can, if you’re a fan of the Premier League. I mean, Jude [Bellingham] has gone to Real Madrid. Yeah, we’re not short of outstanding players and for me, English players playing abroad is a good experience for them.
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“You know what Jude is going to experience? The pressure of playing at a club like Real Madrid where you have to win every week and you’re playing with those outstanding players. You’re training with them every day. You’re having to mature by living abroad as he has at Dortmund. I don’t see a downside in that.
“So for years, we’ve never had players going abroad. We’ve got a few more going abroad now to Italy, to Germany, now to Spain. So I think that’s good for their individual development and they’ve got their own careers and so England is always a consequence of what they do with their clubs in the end.
“It’s not for me to dictate where they go, where they play. We’ll assess where they are. We won’t rule people out. We’ve never ruled anybody out because of the league they play in. We rule them out on the comparison with the other players in their positions.”
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