Yes, Kane has talent... but it’s hard graft that’s got him to the very top
the imperfection. I’m currently doing my coaching badges and, as part of that, I’m studying the impact of coaching and training on development.
For me, there are no born players. There are e just players with the right combination of attributes and attitude.
Harry Kane has shown that. He had the e talent, but he needed a real toughto attitude to get throu through when there didn’t seem to be the right oppor opportunities for him at White Hart Lane. He ne needed to work harder, longer and believe even more. He He’d been at Leicester, wh where he was mostly on th the bench, and only got a chance because they lo lost a few strikers and d idn’ t sign any r replacements. That’s when all that hard work and attitude comes into play.
I don’t know the lad, so I’m saying what I think from a distance. I haven’t even studied him closely, so if they asked on my coaching course how I’d improve him, then I wouldn’t have an immediate answer.
I know, though, that anyone who’s any good at all, knows they can be better.
Kane has got better every year since he went off to Brisbane Road on loan and found goalscoring harder than he ever knew. This season, he’s probably gone to a new level, because he’s comfortable with the idea of being Tottenham’s main man.
In fact, if he’s anything like me, he’s probably revelling in it.
I reckon he’s benefited from an enforced break through injury.
I thought he looked absolutely shattered in the summer, playing for England, and maybe that carried over into the start of this season, but now he’s showing all the signs once more of being back to a top-class level. How good can he be? Well, people are saying he can never match Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith, Gary Lineker ( below), Teddy Sheringham, or Jurgen Klinsmann with Spurs. But why not? Yep, they are greats because they achieved consistency over a long period at the very top, but he’s already heading in that direction – his goals per minute record this season puts him miles ahead of even Costa or Aguero. And he’s still learning. I remember when I was training alongside Ian Rush.
I used to think then that he made things look so easy and it took me a long time to realise that it looked so easy because he put in so much hard work.
But if you’re clever, you can pick up things by watching, by understanding how it’s done.
If there is anything that comes naturally, then it’s that – how the clever players can absorb the lessons without even realising it.
And there’s no doubt Harry Kane is as clever as they come in the Premier League right now.