I had too much fat to be a striker! But I’ve learnt a lot in a short time

HARRY KANE reveals how he was initially carrying too much fat to impress Pochettino and how he eventually won the manager over

to become ‘the best in the world’ THAT [first] pre-season [under Pochettino in 2014] I came back from holiday and I thought I was in OK shape. We had our body fat test done and I was the highest in the team, something like 18 per cent! I didn’t really want to believe it. I was like, ‘Aargh! This is wrong!’ He had his own little drills, his own fitness test — it’s called the Gacons. It’s a run that gets progressively harder. We did a lot of them in pre-season. A lot of tactical and shape work because obviously he wanted to instil his own philosophy. I learnt a lot in that short time. Certain movements, for instance.

He was a defender himself so he knows what the striker should be doing to gain an edge. Sometimes we did one-on-ones with him, Miki D’Agostino, or Jesus Perez, [assistant coaches] training with the strikers. Sometimes we were in a group, just movements around the box, or trying to get in behind. He wants to play that high intensity, he wants runners in behind... I knew straight away that if I wanted to play in his team then I would have to learn that quickly and adapt. He likes to film everything, so if he thinks something isn’t right in training he will show me on the clips. As expected he was not afraid to give the younger players a chance. He wanted everyone on the same page. It is difficult to do what he’s done in such a short time.

I remember one early conversation. I was doing well in the Europa League, but I wasn’t getting into the Premier League team for one reason or another, and I remember getting quite frustrated. So I went to see him and he explained to me that I wasn’t doing enough.

He said that my body fat was high, I wasn’t trying as hard as I could, and that was it! Maybe other managers would try to beat around the bush and try to keep players happy but he was just straight up. He said, ‘You need to do this and this and that’s why you’re not in the squad.’ And it just hit me. This is what I’ve got to do. So I took that on board and I’ve been doing OK since. He has told me ‘You can be the best striker in the world.’ We have a joke about it now and then and, of course, when I hear him say it in the media I know he’s just trying to give me confidence. But, yeah, he’ll text me the next day to show me what he’s said publicly and then he’ll say, ‘But we need to work harder and we need to do more.’