Gareth glad of Harry’s flurry

GARETH Southgate admits he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Harry Kane back on the goalscoring trail after reading the riot act when the Tottenham striker suffered online abuse from the FA’s own Twitter account.

Comments about his performance against Manchester United’s Chris Smalling in the FA Cup semi-final combined with an ankle injury hampered his final weeks of the season until a final late flourish earned him three goals in his last two games.

Southgate said: “We had a good internal discussion and we had an apology pretty quickly, to Harry and to Tottenham.”

Southgate admitted he had made his own mistake regarding Kane, when he insisted he play for the Under-21s at the 2015 European Championships.

“If I had my time again would I take him to that tournament? Maybe not because of the demands on him,” said Southgate.

Now, though, after Kane had a week’s holiday in the Bahamas with his fiancee Katie and daughter Ivy, Southgate expects the striker to come back all guns blazing.

“He’s had a couple of breaks within the season, enforced by injury, this week he’s been keen to get on the golf course, I don’t know how keen his partner is – but that’s for him to decide!

“Either way, a week away is an ideal way to freshen up.

“What I saw from the last couple of games was him starting to get more shots on target. So it was a comforting finish to the season.”