Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has said that Harry Kane is "out of the market" following Liverpool's £75million move for Virgil van Dijk and that Toby Alderweireld is not available for any fee outside of the realms of fantasy football.
After missing out on the Dutchman in the summer, Jurgen Klopp's side finally sealed a deal with Southampton to sign the centre-back ahead of the January transfer window.
It also fired the 26-year-old to the very top of the record books as the most expensive defender in the history of the game.
Spurs spent heavily on a centre-back themselves during the summer to sign Davinson Sanchez from Ajax although the £42million paid out to the Amsterdam-based club now pales in comparison to the sum spent on Van Dijk by Liverpool.
Yet speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Swansea City on Tuesday next week Pochettino was asked how he would price Kane in the aftermath of such a landmark fee.
"I think Harry doesn't have a price," he said. "We want him here. I think we can talk about many things, but at the end it's talk for talk, because it's impossible to put a price. He's out of the market."
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has complained about Manchester City spending what he has called "striker money" on defenders in recent days to further turn up the heat on his relationship with his critics and Pep Guardiola.
However, Pochettino refused to be drawn into their war of words on transfer fees.
"Nothing to say about that," said the Spurs boss when asked about Van Dijk's price. "It's not my problem, it's not my club or my business. For us it's to see if there's an opportunity to try to improve the squad and to sign some good quality players. If it's not possible I'm happy with my squad."
Kane is nothing short of special with the Spurs striker now breaking records and setting new ones on a regular basis. Not only did he finish the year by breaking Alan Shearer's long-standing record of most Premier League goals scored in a calendar year but he also overtook Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's totals for 2017.
Naturally, with the 24-year-old in such scintillating form, old rumours linking him with an unlikely move to Real Madrid have resurfaced, but Pochettino isn't interested in debating how much he may or may not be available for in the future.
"If you make the exercise to see all my interviews or how we trusted in him from day one here, it's because we feel the potential," he said. "Now he deserves full credit for all he's achieved. Now, for me he was always a superstar, not now because he achieved an amazing record."
Toby Alderweireld is another Spurs player for whom Van Dijk has been compared both as a player and in terms of their respective values to their teams and in the market, and Pochettino suggested that suitors would have to play fantasy football to break the world record again in order to sign the Belgian.
"If someone pays £100m, but no-one offers £100m he's priceless, no? He has no price, you know? We need to talk about reality.
"The reality is that Liverpool will pay - if I don't know if it's true because I didn't see - £75million. If you want a player and a club asks for a price and you pay it, that's it. That is the reality of Van Dijk.
"We cannot create a fantasy around different players. It's like the question before [about] Harry Kane. If an offer arrives, maybe we'll see if it's the right offer or not: £200million, £300million, £500million.
"But it's no reality because no-one has offered anything for the players. Football is football. It's about offers and the market. For me, I only saw the news and I wish all the best to Van Dijk and Liverpool. Everyone can do what they want. It's not my business to say anything."
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