KANE DISMISSES THE DOUBTERS
No goals in six England games, but second highest scorer in the Premier League as...
IT IS hardtop in point the precise moment when it all changed so comprehensively for Harry Kane. He definitely was not a global phenomenon when, as a 17-year-old in 2010, he was invited to join in first-team training at Tottenham and Rafael van der Vaart was one of the stars.
‘I remember his first time, telling a team-mate: “He is so s**t! He can’t control the ball”,’ said the Dutchman. Van der Vaart posted his thoughts during the World Cup, making the point that even a player with such seemingly limited potential could develop into the ‘best striker in the world’.
But at some point between then and now the ugly duckling has turned into one of the world’s most iconic players. Last week he was again on the Ballon D’Or shortlist of the 30 best players in the world. He is, of course, the World Cup Golden Boot winner.
So it is natural that his performances will now be analysed in excruciating detail. That, at least, is Kane’s contention. ‘When you set the standards I’ve set over the last few years and you fall a little bit below it, people are going to talk,’ he said. ‘That’s just the game we are in. I’m experienced enough now to know that and not get too high or too low. I just stay focused on my job and what I need to do.’
Then comes the wry smile. ‘In the Premier League, I’m second top goal-scorer,’ he reminds us.
Indeed, he has scored six goals in 10 appearances for Tottenham. Conversely, he has not scored for England in six games. He refers to that second-half header that came crashing off the bar on Friday night against Croatia. With Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling failing to supplant his goalscoring exploits and with Jamie Vardy retired from international football, the onus falls ever more on Kane.
‘ In the second half we played really well, we moved it quicker and got into more dangerous areas,’ he said. ‘I had one off the bar and Marcus had a couple we probably should have scored, so overall we are happy with the performance — a bit more clinical and it would have been perfect.
‘I’d like to have scored more for England recently. But as a striker you go through spells where maybe it goes off the bar and other times it comes off your heel and goes in the back of the net.’
The latter of course is a knowing reference; for four games in the World Cup, everything was going in. Against Panama, his hat-trick was completed when Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s strike hit his heel and deflected over the goalkeeper. At that point, he clearly had the Midas Touch.
‘I set a standard for myself and I want to reach that standard every game I play,’ said Kane. ‘Sometimes you fall below it for one reason or another. It’s about learning and improving and that is what I will do for the rest of my career.
‘ Against Croatia, I thought we played well. It was a tough game. When you are up there, you just have to battle, hold it up, bring others into play and I thought I did that well.’
What Kane will not countenance is that he is playing significantly differently from how he was in the first four matches of the World Cup. That s ai d, he would be inhuman if he did not feel the strain and he almost admits as much.
‘I don’t think my game has dipped,’ he said. ‘It has been tough after the World Cup not getting much rest but I dealt with it well. I’ve stayed fit and stayed healthy. That’s my main priority at the start of the season. Now it’s building on that and pushing forward over the winter period.’
Of course, the Russia effect is not purely physical: the psychological burden of returning to the relatively mundane after experiencing the heightened and intensified emotions of the World Cup has a visceral effect on the mind.
His Tottenham team-mates from France and Belgium might endorse that. There could not have been a greater contrast than between the enormity of a World Cup semi-final — perhaps the most important game you will ever play — and the UEFA Nations League fixture on Friday, which had all the feel and grandeur of a mundane reserveteam game due to the ban on fans.
And Kane, who by nature is guarded, hints that is a factor for all the players after Russia. ‘It was a new experience for us,’ he said. ‘We had an amazing summer, a big high but ending on a low.
‘It’s difficult, because every game we play for England now is not going to be as big as the semi-final and quarter-final. It’ s about adapting to that.’ There is statistical