KANE WERE YOU WATCHING, ARSENAL?
HARRY KANE has lifted the lid on what drives him – a burning desire to show Arsenal they were wrong to reject him 16 years ago.
The Tottenham superstar became the second fastest player to reach 100 Premier League goals, behind Alan Shearer, with his dramatic late leveller at Anfield on Sunday.
And he immediately set his sights on joining the England great in the elusive 200 club.
But ahead of a potentially explosive north London derby on Saturday, the striker, 24, revealed he would not have had that same hunger had he not been turfed out of Arsenal’s academy at the age of eight.
He said: “It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, because it gave me a drive that wasn’t there before.
“I remember the day so clearly. There was this park behind our house in Chingford, and one day when I was eight, I was walking there with my dad and I remember he put his arm around my shoulder, and he said, ‘Well, Harry, Arsenal have released you’.
“Even back then, I had a chip on my shoulder. It might sound ridiculous — I was only eight when they let me go — but every time we played them, I thought, ‘All right, we’ll see who’s right and who’s wrong’. For me, the rejection is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Kane believes that experience gave him the mental strength to deal with a series of setbacks in his career – challenges that would have destroyed most young players. After being picked up by Spurs he was constantly overlooked and loaned out – and almost called it quits during a torrid spell at Leicester in 2013.
Writing on playerstribune. com he said: “That was the lowest moment. I just could not seem to get into their team. They were in the Championship then and I remember having this terrible realisation of, like, ‘If I can’t play for Leicester in the Championship, how am I supposed to play for Spurs in the Premier League?’ That was the first time in my career that doubt crept in. I was so down I told my dad I wanted to leave.”
Instead, the memory of his earlier rejection made him fight on, remembering the words his father offered him when he was cast out by Arsenal: “He just said, ‘Don’t worry, Harry. We’ll work harder – and we’ll go on’.”
Hard work transformed Kane from a player about whom he freely admits people used to say, ‘Well, you know, he doesn’t look like a proper striker’. And he Harry Kane ................. 100 Teddy Sheringham ..... 97 Jermain Defoe .............. 91 Robbie Keane ................ 91 Chris Armstrong ......... 48 Gareth Bale ................... 42 Christian Eriksen ......... 36 Steffen Iversen ............ 36 Emmanuel Adebayor . 35 Darren Anderton ......... 34 138 236 276 238 141 146 156 143 92 299 will never forget his moment of redemption against Arsenal in his first derby. He said: “We were in the tunnel, and I thought, ‘OK. It took me 12 years. But we’ll see who was right and who was wrong’.
“I scored two that day, and the winner in the 86th minute was something that I’d never even dream of visualizing before a match. It was a header — probably the best I’ve ever scored. And that feeling when it hit the back of the net, I’ve never felt a rush like that.”
And after proving himself the best English striker of his generation, and joining the Premier League’s 100 club, he plans to work even harder.
Kane said: “That is what separates good players from great players – can you do it consistently year after year?
“Can you get better and better when people don’t expect you to? That’s what I will continue to strive to do.
“That is always my mindset, to never let up. It is a short career and I’ll try to do as much as I can in it.” Leicester ............ 9 Stoke ................... 8 West Ham ........... 7 Everton ............... 7 West Brom ......... 7 Southampton ... 6 Arsenal ............... 6 Bournemouth... 6 Liverpool ........... 5 Burnley ............... 4 Aston Villa ......... 4 Hull ...................... 4 Norwich .............. 4 Chelsea ............... 3 Sunderland ........ 3 Swansea .............. 3 Crystal Palace.. 2 Man City ............. 2 Watford .............. 2 QPR ..................... 2 Huddersfield ..... 2 Man Utd ............... 1 Newcastle ............ 1 Middlesbrough...1 Fulham .................. 1 Cardiff City ........ 0 Brighton 0 8 8 11 8 6 7 6 4 7 5 5 5 2 7 7 7 7 6 5 2
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