FEAST TO FAMINE

After his World Cup goal heroics, Kane’s August curse returns to haunt him in the Premier League

OVELY taFOR the first time this summer, Tottenham finally managed to get something over the line.

No signings, obviously, but two goals. Neither of them for Harry Kane of course.

While the rest of the country basks in sunshine, it only seems to rain for Kane in August.

Yes, it’s generally a month to look forward to, as we pack our towels, top up on the suntan lotion and head to sunny climes.

But it’s just a Premier League pain as far as England’s talisman is concerned. He’s never scored a top-flight goal in the eighth month of the year.

That’s 988 minutes, 46 shots, 14 matches and counting for a man who breaks – and continues to break – records aplenty.

By the time he finally ended the last campaign, he’d collected 52 goals from 59 matches and had been compared to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after outshining the pair of them during 2017.

But once the calendar flips over from July, French air traffic controllers strike more often than Kane does.

And the truth is, he never looked likely to end that misery at St James’ Park.

It was messy, all right.

Four weeks after he trudged from the pitch in St Petersburg, following England’s limp display against Belgium, Kane found himself ploughing a familiar furrow for Mauricio Pochettino.

The Tottenham spearhead. Only it looked a tad blunted.

Not to the Spurs boss, who praised the conditioning of his World Cup players – of which there were plenty – including that of his main man.

“He worked a lot for the team,” said Pochettino. “Look, Harry cannot score three goals every game.”

With only one week’s training behind England’s main man, it was difficult not to feel a smidgen of sympathy.

Yes, he’s just committed his long-term future to Spurs by signing a mammoth five-year contract.

Yes, he’s with a club competing in the Champions League, heading into a shiny new £1billion ground.

And yes, he only returned to work earlier this week.

But he looked laboured, his touch was off and though there were some glimpses of class, there was little spring in his step.

He has plenty on his plate helping executive chairman Daniel Levy (above) make the repayments on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, ahead of any goliath sponsorship deal.

This week Kane took to social media – though not to protect his reputation or endorse a product. He’d merely mentioned to 2.36million Twitter followers how happy he was that partner Katie Goodland had given birth to their second child, without pain relief.

That sparked a row that he could well have done without.

Ever since the World Cup quarter-final against Sweden – and possibly before, against Colombia – there have been suggestions that Kane has been carrying a knock.

Pochettino rejected that, paying tribute to the readiness of all of the players who returned from international labours.

But while it is true that others went just as deep in Russia, the physical demands faced by French winner Hugo Lloris, for example, were nowhere near those placed on Spurs’ No.10.

Marshalled by Jamaal Lascelles and Ciaran Clark yesterday, Kane rarely found space and never troubled Martin Dubravka in Newcastle’s goal.

Kane, on until the final whistle, was the first to make his way over to the Spurs supporters.

He should probably console himself with the thought that when he does break his hoodoo, his tally at the end of the season will be all the more impressive.

Spurs and their ambitious boss shouldn’t worry. Kane probably just needs a break in front of goal this month.

Maybe more accurately than that, at the moment it looks like he just needs a break, full stop.