Spurs stars are shining but only s silverware will keep them at club

Tottenham Hotspur kept their dreams of a first title since 1961 by beating Bournemouth 4- 0 on Saturday evening, with Harry Kane starring on his return to the starting lineup. The England striker scored his 20th Premier League goal of the season and, in doing so, reached the milestone for the third consecutive campaign.

Kane’s remarkable return – his 20 goals have come in just 24 games – has only been out-shadowed by the season that his teammate Delle Alli is enjoying. Alli’s stats are arguably even more impressive than Kane’s. When the younger of the Spurs pair celebrated his 21st birthday on Tuesday, he did it in the knowledge that he had been involved in 40 Spurs goals in a mere 63 appearances.

Those numbers surpass everything that Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole achieved by the time they turned the same age – Lampard was the closest to Alli with involvement in just 15 goals. Alli, meanwhile, has 16 goals in the league this season alone and five assists on top of that.

It’s this form that has him regarded as a shoo- in to retain his title of PFA Young Player of the Year when the awards are announced on Sunday, for which he will have to beat Kane. It’s also why many have questioned why Alli has not joined Kane on the shortlist for the main award.

Victory for either Kane or Alli will be a huge achievement as would Kane retaining his mantle as Premier League Golden Boot, but ultimately these individual accolades are not what they will be judged on when they hang up their boots. Both players might be young but soccer careers are short and only one tackle away from an untimely end.

Take the other pair who scored more than 20 goals in the Premier League in three consecutive seasons: Alan Shearer and Ruud van Nistelrooy. The Dutchman won trophies in two of those three seasons while Shearer won his only career trophy in the first of those three campaigns.

Shearer may have won the Golden Boot in those three seasons but would no doubt swap that honor – and the others he amassed – for one more winner’s medal. The same would go for Van Nistelrooy but at least he also won the Dutch title twice and La Liga twice after leaving Manchester United for Real Madrid.

Those are the types of clubs that are keeping tabs on Alli and Kane now and the type of clubs where the players could expect to win trophies – for all the talk of Manchester United’s demise, they lifted the FA Cup last season and the League Cup in this.

Kane and Alli will have had an eye on Old Trafford Sunday afternoon and not just because of the result for the league leaders Chelsea. The London sides meet next week at Wembley for a place in the FA Cup final in what is becoming a must- win game for Spurs. If they want to keep hold of their young stars then they need to lift silverware sooner rather than later.