Thomas Tuchel has played down suggestions that Harry Kane could have ended up at Chelsea in the summer.
The Tottenham talisman was keen to seek pastures new in the transfer window that closed on August 31.
Manchester City attempted to prise him away from north London but were ultimately left frustrated, as Spurs chairman Daniel Levy refused to budge on his £150m asking price.
And Tuchel, who will come face-to-face with Kane when Chelsea visit Tottenham on Sunday, admits he is glad the proposed move to City did not go through.
“I thought that this is going to happen,” he said. “I was not scared, but if it would have happened I would have been very interested in how maybe it would have changed Manchester City’s style of playing.
“We are not afraid of anyone. We accept any team and Manchester City, Man United and Liverpool, they are the teams strong like no other in this league and they have strong squads.
"These are the guys with whom we want to compete and it’s normal that they fight for the best players.
“It is also nice that it exists in football that players play for one club only. When I think about Tottenham in the last decade you think about Harry Kane and this is very nice.”
Tuchel also confirmed that, while he rates the England captain highly, it was never likely that Kane would end up at Stamford Bridge.
“We never had a list with his name on it and I never went to Marina [Granovskaia] to tell her to buy him.
“But the club sorted out the situation. There are many people around players, their agents and advisers and people in between, and we had some information from these people.
"But it was never that close that we had to experience the rivalry. We know about the rivalry.”
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