Mauricio Pochettino has played down talk of a reunion with Harry Kane at Chelsea, but admitted he had an "amazing relationship" with the Tottenham striker when they worked together.
Pochettino has taken over at Spurs' bitter London rivals, tasked with turning things around in west London after a disastrous 2022/23 campaign saw the Blues finish 12th.
Heavy, heavy spending went unrewarded as Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter were both sacked over the course of the season - Chelsea finished the campaign with Frank Lampard in caretaker charge.
The summer transfer window has seen Chelsea ship out a number of players from their bloated squad - N'Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibaly, Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovacic, Edouard Mendy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mason Mount and Cesar Azpilicueta have all left and will shortly be followed by Christian Pulisic - and Pochettino is acutely aware that he has a number of things still to address.
In his opening press conference, the Argentine was inevitably asked about potential incomings at Chelsea, with Harry Kane among those to be mentioned. But Pochettino remained respectful of his situation at Spurs, distancing himself from the speculation of a potential transfer while communicating his belief at how good the 29-year-old is.
"I don't like to talk about players in another club, but you are talking about one of the greatest, one of the best strikers in the world. It’s not fair to talk, it’s not fair to say nothing," Pochettino said.
READ THE LATEST CHELSEA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP
"People are not stupid, fans are not stupid, they are so clever and they know my relationship with him was always amazing. I saw him when he was young, grow up and achieve all he was achieving and of course, we have a great relationship. At the moment we are thinking in different ways. We are not thinking about that.
"Of course, working hard to try to provide the squad with good qualities. I don’t like to talk about players and more than that players who were close to me."
Kane has just one year remaining on his Tottenham contract and 90min understands that he's reluctant to sign a new deal at this stage. Bayern Munich have courted Kane all summer long, while Manchester United were interested before learning of Spurs chairman Daniel Levy's £100m+ asking price.
England's captain currently sits on 213 Premier League goals, the second most ever, and trails Alan Shearer's record of 260 by just 47 - something he could achieve in the next two years if he continues scoring at the rate he has done over the past nine seasons.
LISTEN NOW TO 90MIN'S TALKING TRANSFERS PODCAST
On this week's edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth and Graeme Bailey to discuss Man Utd closing in on Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana, Chelsea's push for Moises Caicedo, Dusan Vlahovic, Romeo Lavia, the future of Real Madrid's Federico Valverde & more!
If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
This article was originally published on 90min as Harry Kane to Chelsea? Mauricio Pochettino responds to transfer rumour.