Kane may need to follow Henry’s path – and leave – to fulfil dream
Only way for striker to win trophies could be to move on from beloved Spurs,
There were two moments last season when Harry Kane’s frustration boiled over. On both occasions, following Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League defeat at Chelsea and when they were losing to Ajax in the Champions League semi-final, the striker saw his hopes of clinching a first trophy fading away.
Despite being injured, Kane delivered a rousing half-time speech in Amsterdam and Spurs recovered to reach the Champions League final and provide more evidence of progress under manager Mauricio Pochettino. But the 26-year-old and his team-mates ultimately finished another season empty-handed.
He is still to get his hands on a winner’s medal and with every passing year, the possibility grows that he will eventually reach his Thierry Henry moment at Tottenham. Henry had won two Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Arsenal during eight seasons, but he wanted more. Kane has yet to win anything with Spurs and has made it clear that Golden Boots are not enough.
“My goal is to win the Premier League, the FA Cup, a trophy for Spurs,” said Kane this summer. “Of course, if you’re the striker and you’re doing that, it means you’re going to be up there for the Golden Boot. It means you’re playing well. It’s a mixed feeling. I’ve won it but I’ve not won a team trophy and that’s my goal, that’s what I really want to achieve. So there’s always a bittersweet feeling in achieving something you’d like, but the bigger trophies have not come your way. I’d like to win both, of course. That’s my dream.”
It was a year after losing the 2006 Champions League final with Arsenal, having been part of the move into a new stadium, that Henry came to the hardest decision of his career. He had to leave the club he loved. During an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph on his belief he would be a successful coach, Henry explained how he had made a career out of taking the difficult path.
“I don’t like easy,” said Henry. “I love Arsenal Football Club. I never thought I was going to leave Arsenal, ever in my life, but I like to compete. When I
went to Barcelona, Frank Rijkaard said, ‘You will never start in my team. Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Messi, those are my three. You can come if you want.’ Did I go? Did I win? I’m talking about the mentality. I don’t like easy.”
Kane has also proved, numerous times, he does not like easy. He broke through at Tottenham the hard way, first going on loan to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City. He had to wait for his chance under Pochettino, working tirelessly on his game and fitness to finally get in ahead of Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado before becoming one of the world’s best
He wants to win with Tottenham, but his dedication to self-improvement may force his hand
strikers. He has played through three summers out of the past five for England, at under-21 and senior level, and last year earned the Three Lions’ captaincy.
Kane’s incredible progress as a first-team regular has been mirrored by Pochettino’s Tottenham, as the club have become top-four regulars, overtaken north London rivals Arsenal and almost gone all the way in the Champions League.
Like Henry, in 2006, Kane has spent the summer attempting to lift himself from a massive disappointment for another push with the club he loves, and has the added motivation of embarking on a first full season in the new stadium. But it took only 12 months for Henry to discover that the Champions League final might have been as good as it was going to get at Arsenal and that a new stadium was no guarantee of future success. Ultimately, he was proved right. There can be little doubt that Kane is ready to take the next step, but four points from their first three Premier League games has raised fresh doubts over whether Spurs are in position to do so. A failure to beat Arsenal tomorrow would only add to the pessimism that followed the defeat by Newcastle United.
Kane signed a £200,000-a-week, six-year contract with Tottenham last summer, so it will always be a highly difficult and expensive mission for any club to sign him, with the £198 million world-record fee Paris St-germain paid for Neymar needing to be broken.
Pochettino has previously expressed the hope that Kane could add himself to the rare breed of one-club men, who include Francesco Totti, saying: “Maybe Harry can have the same career as Totti. I hope he stays with us for a long time because he has great quality. He enjoys Tottenham and he probably identifies with the club more because he is from the academy.”
Like Kane, Totti’s first five years as a first-team regular were trophyless. But in his sixth, in 2001, the Italian legend was part of Roma’s Serie A title success and he went on to win two Coppa Italias and two Supercoppa Italianas with the club, as well as the 2006 World Cup with his national team.
Tottenham cannot rely on the fact that Kane’s affection for the club will prevent him from deciding it is time to move on, particularly as Pochettino has admitted he will now measure success against silverware.
“My personal feeling is that starting my sixth season I need to lift a trophy,” said Pochettino ahead of the first game of this campaign. As documented by The Telegraph, it was Kane’s reaction to defeat at Stamford Bridge in February, which effectively ended any hope of a title challenge last season, that prompted some team-mates to worry that one more trophy-less season might be the end. He will be 27 next summer and nearing his peak. Henry was two years older when he moved to Barca, where he won the Champions League and La Liga. Ideally, Kane wants to win with Tottenham. But, like Henry, his dedication to self-improvement may well force him to leave the love of his life.