‘ I know I’m not a one- hit wonder’
HARRY KANE wishes to set the record straight.
There has been no trailblazing start to the season to go with the rush of goals of last term, and if his performances have been highlighted on Match of the Day it has been to pick holes rather than offer praise.
Yet as talk turned to one- season wonders, the Tottenham striker bristled.
“I know I am more than that,” said Kane. “I don’t think last year was lucky. I worked very hard to get where I was last year and I know I have got to keep working hard to progress, but I am very confi dent.
“I know if I get chances then I will score.”
This is the fl ip- side of fame for Kane: criticism, doubt and barbs; though the scrutiny to which he has been subjected following a goalless start to the campaign in an underperforming Tottenham side adds context to a remarkable rise which saw him score within seconds of his full England debut in March.
It is worth remembering he did not start a top- fl ight game until the home match against Stoke on November 9 last term and had been restricted to 95 minutes in various cameos in the Premier League until then. If anything, he is a seven- month wonder.
“That scrutiny was always going to be the case because I came on the scene so unexpectedly last year people were always going to wonder, ‘ Can he do it again?’” said Kane, 22.
“But it isn’t, ‘ Can he score 10 goals in his fi rst four games of the season?’ We will see at the end of the season how it is. Even if I don’t score as many goals as last year, I am playing week- in, week- out and hopefully I can keep doing that and do my best for the team.
“Probably the Everton chance [ a one- on- one with the goalkeeper on Saturday] was the fi rst real chance I’ve had all season that I’d say I should have scored.
“As a striker you are going to get chances where you miss, but it is about how you cope with that. Some strikers go down a bad path and lose their confi dence, but I am fairly self- confi dent and have a lot of self- belief.”
The point was emphasised to Kane last week when he spent time with Alan Shearer at a walking football event, where the chance to rub shoulders with an England legend gave him the opportunity to pick his brains.
“That was a good laugh and it was good to talk to him,” said Kane, who has scored just twice for Tottenham since plundering a hat- trick against Leicester on March 21.
“We shared some things because obviously he’s been in the same sort of situation as I am now and he gave me some good tips.
“He just said that you are going to go through games without scoring, but that the best strikers in the world just put it to the back of their mind and focus on the next chance or goal, and that’s what I try to do.
“It was great to hear that is what he went through sometimes, and what he did about it. If I can do the same and keep focused then that’s what I will do.”
Kane will hope the free hit that an international fi xture against San Marino offers allows him to return to the goal standard, with England coach Roy Hodgson set to hand him a third cap in the Euro 2016 qualifi er at the Serravalle Stadium tomorrow.
It was of his own choosing that his time with the seniors was interrupted during the summer as he volunteered to drop back down to the Under- 21s for the European Championship in the Czech Republic.
His involvement stretched his number of competitive appearances last season to 56 ( scoring 32 goals) – Wayne Rooney played 47 ( 22 goals) – plus an end- of- season jaunt across the world to the Far East with his club.
Tottenham warned of burn- out but head coach Mauricio Pochettino did not choose to ease Kane into the campaign, if only because he has no other strikers. Kane said: “It was always going to be the case that, if I didn’t score early on in the season, people were going to say, ‘ Is he tired?’
“But I’m 100 per cent fi t and feel as fi t as I did this time last year .”
If Kane was a different character he would have used Manchester United’s interest in him this summer as a lever to spark another transfer saga. It did not materialise.
“I am a Tottenham boy,” he said. “I have grown up with the club and I love the club. We have a young team that is only going to get better and better. I am happy. I am excited for the future. There is a new stadium as well.
“Everything just seems to be going in the right direction so I am excited.”