Kane could have dropped out of the system…
THE Harry Kane Team? Six years ago today, the Tottenham talisman was such an insignificant part of the set-up that even the opposing manager cannot remember the very first goal which kicked off the whole phenomenon.
That somewhat disparaging label Pep Guardiola pinned on Tottenham in October means all 11 Spurs players will have something to prove when they head to the Etihad tomorrow, desperate to end City’s record run of 15 successive Premier League victories.
Stopping Kane in particular will be high in Guardiola’s thoughts – a far cry from 2011 when the teenage striker was sent on to the pitch in front of 8,000 people in the Europa League group match in Dublin having REPORTS failed to make much of an impact in any of his five previous Spurs appearances.
“We had not done any preparation on him for the Tottenham game because Harry was a totally unknown quantity,” said former Shamrock Rovers manager Michael O’Neill, right, now Northern Ireland boss.
“He had played for the last 10 minutes in the first game at White Hart Lane and I don’t remember anything about it.
“I recall the only kid that everybody was going on about was Tom Carroll.
“Harry came off the bench in the second game, I recall, but I cannot remember his goal at all.”
A deep cross from Danny Rose was nodded down by Andros Townsend, and Kane turned sharply and fired right-footed inside the near post. Goal No1 of 117 and counting.
Yet it could have been so different, Tottenham academy coach Bradley Allen admits, had it not been for an impressive loan spell at Millwall in the months which followed – perhaps inspired by getting off the mark in Ireland.
“Yes, there were times when he could have dropped out of the system,” said Allen.
“You have to say he had only done OK when out on loan to Leyton Orient the year before.
“It was not like when Jermain Defoe went on loan to Bournemouth from West Ham and scored 18 goals in 27 games. Harry didn’t pull up any trees.
“Forget being a gold medallist. Harry at 14 was not even a podium player. He wasn’t up there.
“We weren’t all saying, ‘We need to just wait for this boy’.
“But after scoring that goal against Shamrock, the experience of him going out and playing with Millwall really brought him on.” That learning process has never stopped. It is a number of years since they worked formally together, but even earlier this season, former QPR and Charlton striker Allen – a coach who a couple of months ago Kane singled out as one his biggest influences – pulled the 24-year-old aside.
“I saw a little spell of games when he had worked himself into really good positions on the left-hand side and was a little bit reluctant to strike and take a shot early,” said Allen. “Exactly as he was as a kid.
“I bumped into him on the training ground and mentioned it to him and, knowing him, he probably took that out and practised it further. Then in the next few games he started scoring the goals. That is typical Harry.” Listen, experiment, repeat.
Advice has always been plentiful in Kane’s development – from school team manager Denis McElligott, who encouraged his young star even to shoot from corners and the half-way line, to Diego Maradona, who when they met at Wembley earlier this season told Kane he should not go for the near post all the time as keepers will get wise to it. Unashamedly, Chingford Foundation School genuinely was “a Harry Kane team”.
But, whether Guardiola meant it or not, what is it that makes Kane so good the City manager is willing to raise him head and shoulders above his fellow stars?
Allen said: “There were a couple of glimpses where he showed in those younger groups some of the ball-striking techniques. But he was not a natural goalscorer like a young a Robbie Fowler, for instance.
“Nevertheless, every idea he has heard he has taken on board. Now he can go with both feet – that is something he has worked on.
“I don’t think there are many players in the Premier League who can score as many different types of goals – headers, volleys, left foot, right foot. Harry has got the full package.”