DON’T BLAME ME FOR RALLS RED, SAYS KANE
(Quite right too, Harry. . .he HAD to go)
HARRY KANE staunchly defended his behaviour after Cardiff manager neil Warnock accused the Tottenham talisman of getting Joe Ralls sent off.
Spurs limped to victory against the Bluebirds on Saturday at Wembley to equal their best ever Premier League start to a season.
But the victory was overshadowed by referee Mike Dean’s decision to give Cardiff midfielder Ralls a straight red card for a cynical tackle on Lucas Moura. The challenge sparked chaotic scenes which saw Kane race over to confront Ralls before grappling with the 24-year-old.
Kane’s reaction infuriated Warnock, who believed the striker’s angry response forced Dean’s hand. The Cardiff manager also insisted Kane’s behaviour was not befitting of an england captain: ‘I don’t think you should try to get other pros sent off, just because he’s had a poor game and Spurs were having a poor game.
‘An england player going off like that? Dear me. I don’t think he needs to do that.’
But Kane hit back, insisting Ralls’s red card was entirely the right decision. ‘ He has kicked one of our players knee height and the referee said to me that the fourth official helped him out, so it is what it is,’ said the england captain, who was booked as part of the flashpoint.
‘I guess managers are going to get angry. But at the end of the day their player has looked at our player and kicked him higher than he ever should. So for me it was a red card and the right decision.’
Kane would be right, too. An absolute stonewall sending-off.
Warnock says he saw Dean reach for his yellow card pocket before Kane and fourth official Paul Tierney’s interventions. If that’s right, Dean should be grateful he was put right. You won’t see a more absurd challenge all season. If Kane accentuated that then all’s fair in love and war.
Warnock may not admit it publicly, but you’d imagine he would expect the same from one of his charges were the shoe on the other foot.
Kane’s job is to ensure his team win matches. At that moment, given their slender advantage courtesy of eric Dier’s early goal and a stuttering display, there were no guarantees Spurs would emerge victorious.
The Ralls red card made life easier for Tottenham; Kane and his manager Mauricio Pochettino will say it was a job well done. Through gritted teeth, so would Warnock. But who knows how this game would have finished had Cardiff kept 11 men on the pitch.
The gulf in quality between both sides was evident, but Cardiff were dogged, hanging in with a chance of a point until the final whistle.
Some of that had to do with Spurs’ lack of fluency. They lacked their usual verve; the same levels of energy that have personified their performances under Pochettino.
Last season you would have put your mortgage on Tottenham winning by three or four clear goals. On Saturday, there was a reluctance to floor it.
Whether it represents a problem that continues to hamper Spurs this season, or underlines their ability to grind out wins when not playing particularly well, remains to be seen.
either way, Pochettino insists his players should be given a break. ‘After two years doing well, the club are at another level,’ said the Argentine. ‘But it’s my fifth season in charge and people sometimes struggle to remember this and we feel sometimes that’s so unfair. Like Wednesday, people expect us to win against Barcelona, against Messi and Coutinho. It’s so unfair to compare both teams. But you have to accept that.’