WHERE A STAR WAS BORN...
Harry Kane will today revisit the scene of his first game, as an Orient sub
IT’S where it all began and, even then, the pitch was an issue. On a gloomy winter’s afternoon on January 15, 2011 amid the inauspicious surroundings of Rochdale’s Spotland in a League One clash, football’s latest global superstar made his unlikely entrance.
The man making way for him was Scott McGleish, then 36 and a veteran of the lower leagues, with distinguished spells at Barnet, Colchester, Northampton and Wycombe.
He trotted off and shook hands with the gangly 17-year-old on loan from Tottenham preparing to make his professional debut for Leyton Orient in an attempt to glean a late winner, the score then being 1-1.
That was how Harry Kane entered the football world, sent on as a 73rd-minute substitute by Orient manager Russell Slade. Today Kane may revisit the starting point of his journey. The man who now scores against Real Madrid and Juventus, who is on course for a third successive Premier League Golden Boot, is due back at Rochdale for Tottenham’s FA Cup fifth-round tie.
He may be on the bench after rolling his ankle following the Champions League tie against Juventus, but you suspect Kane would welcome the chance to revisit his roots. Rochdale have even had a new pitch laid for him, so he may find it more accommodating than his debut there seven years ago.
‘The pitch was horrendous,’ recalls Slade. ‘It was about three or four inches of mud. You couldn’t see your boots!’
McGleish concurs. ‘I’ve played there a few times and it’s always a tough place and, no surprise, the pitch is never the best after Christmas. It’s always boggy, always muddy.
‘From his face, I guess it wasn’t what Kane was used to. But in lower leagues, January and February is like that. Pitches aren’t carpets, like the academy pitches. For a club to spend lots of money on a pitch is maybe money they could spend on players they need.
‘Harry had just turned up from Tottenham but he wasn’t big time; just a 17-year-old who wanted to learn. He saw the state of the pitch and we were having a chat beforehand and I was like, “Welcome to League One! You might have to get used to it for a few months”.’
‘Get used to it’ is pretty much what Kane did. No one at Orient remembers any airs or graces surrounding Kane, nor his Spurs team-mates Tom Carroll and Paul-Jose M’Poku, who joined him at Orient for that five-month loan.
‘I can’t remember him moaning about anything, the changing rooms, the facilities,’ said Slade, who revels in giving young players a debut. ‘I always get a buzz out of that. Tom Carroll’s was at Bournemouth and I remember him coming off with a huge smile on his face and Harry was the same.’
Alex Revell, who, like McGleish, played up front with Kane at Orient, said: ‘He was excited to be playing and as a young kid he just wanted to come in and make an impression. A loan spell is a test of that mental side. You go somewhere and the changing rooms might not be great and the shower is out of action but, at the end of the day, you’re still playing in front of people who support the football club and you have a responsibility to perform.
‘Dealing with things like that has definitely made him a better player today. He was very humble and I don’t think he could have imagined what was going to happen to him, but if you can go to Rochdale away and get on with the game and fit in with the team, it’s a great asset to have.’
Slade, who was dismissed by Grimsby last week, took Orient to the brink of the Championship, losing on penalties in the 2014 League One playoff final. And Kane helped them to seventh in 2011. ‘At the time, we were favourites to go down,’ said Revell. ‘And there were a few trips some people might not want to do but he got on with it. His attitude stood out.’ Slade recalls Kane’s ‘thirst to learn, get better and improve’. That said, even Tottenham weren’t predicting quite such an exalted future for him at that stage. ‘The club believed in him but I don’t think anyone thought he would get to the level he has now,’ said one scout. ‘His downside was that people were looking for pace. He was very good. He shielded the ball well, held it up, kept it in play with his chest control. His touch was good and he brought people into play but might be lacking that burst of pace.’ At Tottenham, some feel the physical work he did in the autumn of 2012, having sustained a metatarsal injury while on loan at Norwich, helped make him a stronger athlete. And the lack of speed is compensated by his extraordinary stamina, so he is still making forceful runs late in the game when others feel fatigued. And Kane has acknowledged how the apprenticeship he served in his loan spells at Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester moulded him. ‘Maybe people look at it now and think, “I don’t want to go to League One or League Two”,’ said Revell. ‘But he got his grounding there. He says now how lucky he is where he’s at and I think he means that, because he’s been around. ‘I spoke to Paul Trollope [Chris Hughton’s assistant at Brighton and formerly at Norwich] about him when he was on loan at Norwich and he said how hard he worked every day on finishing: literally, every day. I think Orient definitely helped him on his path.’ Even the less exalted moments were significant, according to McGleish, who recalls Kane being sent off at Huddersfield, four minutes after scoring. ‘That was a learning process,’ says McGleish. ‘He was probably a bit over-zealous, just after he scored. And it was a lesson learned.’ It seems Kane isn’t one to forget his roots either. ‘I saw him at the PFA awards in 2016,’ said McGleish. ‘He walked past, stopped me and said, “How are you, Scott?” He’s made it now but he will still remember some like myself who have had a good career but never made it to his level. His mum and dad also said hello and that tells you how rooted they are as a family.’ Let’s hope that Spotland today gets a reminder of the crucial part the old stadium played in the development of one of the world’s leading players.